Quality of water recovered from a municipal effluent injection well in the Floridan aquifer system, Pompano Beach, Florida

Approximately 69 million gallons of backflow from an injection well used for the disposal of secondary treated municipal effluent in the Floridan aquifer system near Pompano Beach, Florida, was periodically sampled for inorganic quality from March 1975 through March 1977. Analyses of the backflow effluent showed a concomitant increase in dissolved solids and a change in ionic composition as a function of cumulative volume of backflow. Both the increase in dissolved solids and the change in major ionic composition were directly related to an estimated 6 to 7 percent mixing of the moderately saline water in the Florida aquifer system with the injected system with the injected effluent. Although an estimated 3.5 billion gallons of effluent was injected into the aquifer system during the 16-year operation of the Collier Manor treatment plant, only 65 to 70 million gallons was backflowed before the chloride concentration approached 250 milligrams per liter. (USGS)