Rur'eaux project: innovative demonstrator pilot for the development of wastewater reuse in rural areas - 2018

The Rur'eaux project located in the commune of Saint-Jean-de-Cornies is a pilot demonstrator for irrigation using treated wastewater in an agricultural and rural context. This project led by Ecofilae, supported by its partners aims to compare different techniques of disinfection for treated wastewater adapted to small communities.

The Saint-Jean-de-Cornies’s WWTP, currently composed of a single stage of filters planted with vertical flow reed beds filters produces effluents whose quality complies with the regulation in effect for this type of installation. The system works with batches (variations of hourly flow) and represents the most drastic operating conditions, but widespread in communities of modest size.

Beyond the technical and sanitary aspects of treated wastewater, the partners involved in this project wish to carry out agronomic monitoring on 3 identified uses:

• shared garden irrigation (drip);
• fodder irrigation;
• irrigation to produce biomass (wood).

The impact of treated wastewater irrigation on soils, surface waters, plants and finished products will be monitored throughout the project.

This project will allow the most complete possible feedback on the REUSE in a rural context. The results obtained will make possible to orient the actors (users and elected officials) in their choices of tertiary disinfection technology to reuse wastewater from vertical reed beds filters.