Cropped transparent version of Image:Olympic flag.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Water Quality and the London Summer Olympics

Browsing around the internet, looking at the latest news in the water quality word, WETLAB came across a few headlines that caught our attention – both regarding the Summer Olympic Games in London.

What could water quality have to do with the summer games? According to www.envirotech-online.com, there are two topics of interest – clean competition water for aquatic events, and the green practice of recycling sewage at the Olympic Park in London.

According to their article, water quality is actually strictly monitored for aquatic competition by the National Swimming Clubs Governing Body. For this summer’s games, the events in the aquatic center governed by that body include swimming, diving, synchronized swimming  and the swimming part of the modern pentathlon.

And on the water quality conservation front, the Olympic Park in London is recycling sewage water for use in toilets and in landscaping, according to Environmental Technology Online. The treated wastewater will also be used for cooling in the energy center.

This takes a step beyond the already green practices of harvesting rainwater and recycling grey water, and under the spotlight of the Olympic Games, could become an example of efficient water use and conservation, according to the Olympic Delivery Authority, an organization responsible for venues, infrastructure and the legacy of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

Sewage, or black water, has the advantage of being a more predictable, steady supply of water for applicable uses than captured rain water or even grey water, according to the article. The ODA found that treating sewage for use in toilets and irrigation actually used less energy than extracting and treating ground water for drinking water purposes.

Along with efficient fixtures reducing the use of drinkable water by 58 percent, this black water recycling program stands to put a sizeable dent in water usage by the Olympic Games.

Here in Northern Nevada, a place where water isn’t particularly plentiful, these technologies could be of great interest.

At Wetlab, we’re always interested in unique water quality topics like these that came out of the Olympic Games. Let us know what you think by commenting on this story on our Facebook page.

swimming (Photo credit: Jim Bahn)