Seasonal tertiary wastewater treatment in California: An analysis of public health benefits and costs

A number of communities in the Central Valley of California have requested that seasonally based effluent limits be developed for their wastewater treatment facilities. These seasonal limits would be based on disinfected secondary treatment during the winter and disinfected tertiary treatment during the rest of the year. Such a request for seasonal limits raises a significant water quality policy question with regard to the costs and relative benefits of tertiary treatment during the winter season. A benefit–cost analysis for winter season tertiary wastewater treatment in California's Central Valley is presented here. The assumed societal benefit of winter tertiary treatment is enhanced water quality for recreational purposes, and thus reduced risk to public health. Based on the results of this analysis, between four and sixteen million recreation events would need to occur annually region-wide during the winter to justify the costs of winter tertiary treatment. A similar method and the information described herein could be used by the state water quality regulatory agency to develop a risk-based policy to consider seasonal limits.