Dear Ghoewylah, It is ...

Dear Ghoewylah,

It is obvious that many people have different opinions on this matter. My company designs and builds constructed wetlands for more than two decades now. And we have projects in many countries, many climates. Usually the domestic projects mean: treating both grey and black water. We do want to keep those streams separated for the pretreatment, after that we bring them together to direct it into the constructed wetland.

We have many projects where the final effluent is being reused. Not for drinking purposes, I consider that too risky. But for toilet flushing and irrigation or for discharge in a pool. We face no difficulties with that, If the effluent is not reused it can be discharged directly in the environment, it meets the (Dutch) regulations.

Chlorination is something we NEVER do, that is a technique from the past. Our reuse is based on exclusively natural processes and that is enough NOT to worry about pathogens and heavy metals. There is a lot of knowledge among the people who are involved in constructed wetlands (scientists and engineers) and there are countless reports and analyses to support what I just wrote...