Advances in Soil Aquifer Treatment Research for Sustainable Water Reuse (Subject Area: Environmental Leadership)

The overall objective of the project was to evaluate the sustainability of SAT, where SAT is defined as a three-component treatment process consisting of the infiltration zone, vadose zone, and aquifer storage. The concept can be broadened to an SAT system that adds the additional components of effluent pretreatment, SAT site operation, and the recovery of groundwater after infiltration and aquifer storage for water reuse. Also studied were ways to increase the understanding of the effectiveness of SAT processes and how this information can be used to design, operate, and regulate SAT systems.