{"id":11126,"date":"2018-05-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/?p=11126"},"modified":"2026-10-21T18:27:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:27:31","slug":"recycled-water-aquifer-recharge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/news\/recycled-water-aquifer-recharge\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycled water for aquifer recharge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water availability has become increasingly limited worldwide, to the point that aquifers and groundwater are being over-exploited. Aquifers are hydraulically connected porous formations that can interact with surface water, appearing as natural springs and wetlands<\/strong>. Aquifers recharge naturally from rainfall, from other aquifers with higher piezometric levels and from river losses.<\/p>\n

There are two main problems associated with abstraction and the depletion of aquifers:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Saline intrusion or salinisation<\/strong>, which affects groundwater quality. It does not reduce the quantity of water but changes its composition. For example, mixing just 5% seawater with the freshwater in an aquifer makes it unusable for municipal, industrial or agricultural use.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Loss of wetlands and natural springs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using treated wastewater for aquifer recharge<\/strong> is one of the best ways to remedy the effects of aquifer depletion and salinisation.<\/p>\n

Its importance will grow in the near future as climate change directly affects water availability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The main aims<\/strong> of artificial aquifer recharge are to increase aquifer resources without altering water quality, to offset the loss of natural recharge caused by activities in the area and to create a hydraulic barrier against saline intrusion in coastal aquifers.<\/p>\n

How can aquifers be recharged?<\/h2>\n

\u2022 Infiltration basins<\/strong> are one of the most common and simplest<\/strong> methods, requiring an excavation in a permeable area close to the water source, in this case the reclaimed water treatment plant. Construction and maintenance costs are low, the facilities have a long service life and infiltration rates are easy to monitor. The only drawback is that they need large areas of land.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Trenches.<\/strong> Trenches significantly reduce erosion and retain run-off, increasing natural infiltration. The area must have a soft surface layer; they cannot be built on heavily eroded ground.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Deep recharge wells.<\/strong> This type of artificial recharge is used when the ground has low permeability, which makes surface recharge impossible.<\/p>\n

At KEIKEN ENGINEERING<\/strong> we promote water reclamation and reuse<\/strong> to reduce environmental impacts and increase water availability without exploiting conventional sources. Advanced water reclamation treatment<\/strong> must be tailored to the characteristics of each water and the intended end use. These are specialist treatments that must be carried out by experts with high-quality equipment.<\/p>\n

There are already aquifer recharge schemes in Spain<\/strong>, such as the full-scale project in Port de la Selva<\/strong>, Girona. There, high-quality effluent is discharged into the local stream a few metres before it reaches the sea, preventing the saline intrusion caused by summer over-abstraction from the supply wells. The municipality also built a reclaimed water network to supply irrigation water to private gardens. Finally, thanks to the European DEMOWARE project<\/strong>, reclaimed water is used outside the summer months to recharge the aquifer that supplies the town (source: DEMOWARE).<\/p>\n

Examples of advanced treatment<\/strong> for water reclamation include disinfection<\/strong> of pathogens in wastewater treatment works effluent, filtration<\/strong> (through filtration media such as activated carbon, anthracite and\/or garnet) and screening<\/strong>, among others, depending on the effluent characteristics and the required final quality. KEIKEN<\/strong> can design and build these installations, including water reuse plants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For our services or more information, email info@keiken.es or contact us<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Treated wastewater can be used to recharge over-exploited aquifers and protect them from saline intrusion. Methods and a case study in Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water-reuse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11839,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions\/11839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}