Water Reuse in FBC LID 7

In conventional municipal water systems, water from a river, lake, or aquifer is treated to meet drinking water standards before being distributed for all uses. After the water is used, the community’s wastewater—the water that flows down the drain or is flushed down the toilet—is treated to remove pollutants before it is discharged into downstream water bodies.

Water reuse is the use of treated wastewater for beneficial purposes, which increases a community’s available water supply and makes it more reliable, especially in times of drought.

With FBC LID 7's reuse system, water is obtained from the City of Sugar Land’s New Territory wastewater plant.  The reuse plant operates like a potable water plant – it treats, stores and then distributes the water using booster pumps.

As of September 2018, there are 145 irrigation connections to the system.  In the same timeperiod, the system has provided 44,416,000 gallons of reused water for irrigation to New Territory.

The District brought the water reuse system online in May of 2018.  This was the culmination of a multi-year project that included building the water reuse plant and installing the ‘purple pipe distribution system.’    The total amount of pipe installed was approximately 116,000 feet, or nearly 22 miles.

Below are several photos of various aspects of this newly installed reuse system.