Water reuse of south Barcelonaʹs wastewater reclamation plant Original Research Article

The use of water from the wastewater reclamation plant serving the south of Barcelona, Spain, will contribute with new resources to help to solve the water scarcity problem that the Barcelona metropolitan area suffers at present. When the plant starts to operate, it is scheduled to reuse 50 Mm3/y of reclaimed water that will be used for supplying the ecological flow in the lower part of the Llobregat River, irrigation of farm areas and supplying water to wetlands in the river deltaic areas. Another scheduled use pretends to solve the salt-intrusion problem in the Llobregat lower delta aquifer through the implementation of an hydraulic barrier using reclaimed water. For obtaining water with the quality required for all the reuse purposes, it is necessary to modify the existing biological treatment to remove nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and the construction of a tertiary reclamation facility, which for recharge purposes includes a reverse osmosis plant. A pumping station and pipelines for transporting the reclaimed water to the different application areas and a different pipeline for transporting the water to the injection wells where it is introduced into the aquifer at a depth of 60 m are being built.