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B2G

(9,766 posts)
Tue May 26, 2015, 04:06 PM May 2015

Turning sewage into drinking water gains appeal as drought lingers

Turning sewage into drinking water gains appeal as drought lingers


May 24, 2015, 8:50 PM


It's a technology with the potential to ease California's colossal thirst and insulate millions from the parched whims of Mother Nature, experts say..

But there's just one problem — the "yuck factor."

As a fourth year of drought continues to drain aquifers and reservoirs, California water managers and environmentalists are urging adoption of a polarizing water recycling policy known as direct potable reuse.

Unlike nonpotable reuse — in which treated sewage is used to irrigate crops, parks or golf courses — direct potable reuse takes treated sewage effluent and purifies it so it can be used as drinking water.

It's a concept that might cause some consumers to wince, but it has been used for decades in Windhoek, Namibia — where evaporation rates exceed annual rainfall — and more recently in drought-stricken Texas cities, including Big Spring and Wichita Falls.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-toilet-to-tap-20150525-story.html#page=1

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Turning sewage into drinking water gains appeal as drought lingers (Original Post) B2G May 2015 OP
I think we'll stick with nonpotable reuse for now KamaAina May 2015 #1
This is quite simply the right thing to do, not desalination plants. NYC_SKP May 2015 #2
I agree. B2G May 2015 #3
I've tasted it Proud Public Servant May 2015 #4
Even water molecules obtained from a pristine glacier Cirque du So-What May 2015 #5
 

NYC_SKP

(68,644 posts)
2. This is quite simply the right thing to do, not desalination plants.
Tue May 26, 2015, 04:11 PM
May 2015

Gawd, we are a stupid species.

People, some of them progressives, want to build energy-intensive desalination plants to solve the water shortage.

There is not a shortage of water, there is a shortage of precipitation. We need to reduce use of drinking water for non drinking purposes, promote grey water reuse, and process all of our wastewater back into drinking water and then treat that water as sacred.

 

B2G

(9,766 posts)
3. I agree.
Tue May 26, 2015, 04:16 PM
May 2015

The process produces water that is purer than most bottled waters, but people turn up their noses and complain about the dire state of things.

First world problems in a nutshell...

Proud Public Servant

(2,097 posts)
4. I've tasted it
Tue May 26, 2015, 05:15 PM
May 2015

Singapore does this -- probably pioneered it (maybe not, but it strikes me as very Singaporean). My lasting impression was that it didn't taste like anything, even compared to other kinds of water. Really odd -- but not gross.

Cirque du So-What

(25,812 posts)
5. Even water molecules obtained from a pristine glacier
Tue May 26, 2015, 05:23 PM
May 2015

have likely passed through some pretty putrid places in their lifetime.

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