Sustainability and Disinfection: Incorporating Life Cycle Assessment into Wastewater Disinfection Design

In January 2010, the American Society of Civil Engineers conducted a series of
workshops to address problems with infrastructure deficiencies in the United States. The
outcomes associated with these workshops were discussed in Civil Engineering Magazine
(April 2010). Based upon these outcomes, a consensus was reached that the water and
wastewater infrastructure in the United States is in a state of crisis and that the following
recommendations may provide a roadmap to ease that crisis and a vision for
improvement:
• Increase Federal Leadership in Infrastructure;
• Promote Sustainability and Resilience;
• Develop Federal, Regional and State Infrastructure Plans;
• Address Life-Cycle Costs and Ongoing Maintenance; and
• Increase and Improve Investment from all Stakeholders.
The above information and the predicted infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement
needs expected in the next decade prompted the USEPA to commit to promoting
sustainable infrastructure practices. If successfully implemented, these practices would
help reduce the predicted gap between infrastructure needs and infrastructure spending
(USEPA, 2006). Disinfection is one of the key unit processes for the protection of public
health. In order to fully implement the four pillars of the USEPA sustainable
infrastructure model, approaches must be taken to incorporate sustainability into
engineering design and operation of disinfection unit processes for water and wastewater
infrastructure systems.