Conference Program > NOWMMA technical tour (14/10/2015)

Link to the project description

General Information

Place: Mauguio (34) 

Date and time slot: Wednesday, 14 of October, 2015, 09:00-12:30

Target Audience: All participants and particularly the researchers of the W4CROP Project and the ICID Working Group on use of poor quality water for irrigation ( WG PQW)

Accessibility: Free and open, subject to availability (for logistic reasons and in order to guarantee your place, we recommend you to book your visit on-line)

Supervisor: Bruno Molle

Project Details

Introduction: Reuse of treated wastewater represents an alternative source of water, which is not exploited enough in France. However, this notion of reuse does not take into account the discharge from treatment plants that ends up in aquatic environments. Treated water is an additional, local supply of water for a variety of uses such as watering green spaces, irrigating cultivated land, supplying fountains or washing vehicles and highways.

Objectives: Introduced in 2001, as a response to a call for Eco-industry proposals issued by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. the research project NOWMMA (New process for Optimizing Wastewater reuse from Mauguio to the Mediterranean Area in support of the French reuse directive) is lead by a consortium of nine partners, including industrialists, who intervene locally, and laboratories. 

The NOWMMA project aims to develop a complete chain for reused, treated wastewater in France, in response to the demands of regional and international communities amongst the Mediterranean basin. Every stage, from the treatment processes until the water is delivered is analyzed. The project provides modular pathways to satisfy local constraints such as the variable quality of the wastewater to be treated and regulations. Masterng the risks of sanitary, environmental and technologic hazards is an essential approach of this study.

Conclusion: The demonstrator pilot project tests the different stages of treated wastewater reuse in order to propose a product with well defined boundaries: treatment and delivery technology, analytics monitoring, exploitation guide, economic and environmental assessment, and social acceptability. It also allows for the anticipation and management of the risks that are inherent with reuse such as the risk to human health, sanitation risks for plants, and technological risks. Irrigation aspects including spraying, drip irrigation and reuse in urban areas are studied.

Over time, the expected results will provide:

• An adjustable and exportable pathway to the whole Mediterranean basin and expertise acquired by all the partners.
• A group of products quickly marketable in the three years following the project, accompanied with a “business model” and with a “roadmap”, which will be considered decision support
• An interaction with the regulations in France and Europe along with the development of ISO norms for the wastewater reuse.

This project, held by SAUR and supported by the Pole EAU, could have further impact in terms of network and employment, with other positive socio-economic impacts guaranteed by the accompaniment of Transfert LR.

Program

Visit to the Mauguio site, with its platform of dedication to the development of the reuse of treated wastewater (collaborative project NOWMMA)

This station responds to the demographic evolution and common activities of Mauguio and Mudaison (Hérault, France). Its construction integrates the flood prone nature of the site, containment works (sound proofing, deodorization), an advanced treatment of the nitrogen and phosphorus in order to fight against the eutrophication of l’Etang de l’Or. After the transition through the rehabilitation of old lagoons in the environmental transit zone, the discharge of the treated water, takes place in either a Mediterranean waterway system (“Le Salaison”) or in a bordering humid zone.

Pictures