Sewer to spigot: An article on recycled water from the Wall Street Journal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 15, 2008 at 6:19 amFrom the Wall Street Journal:
A growing number of cities and counties grappling with water shortages are turning to a solution that may be tough for some homeowners to stomach: purifying wastewater so that residents can drink it.
In an effort to replenish its groundwater supply, Los Angeles is slated to announce Thursday a plan that will recycle 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019. In San Diego, the city council voted in favor of a pilot project that would pump recycled sewage water into a drinking-water reservoir, despite a veto from the mayor over the system’s cost. Miami-Dade County, Fla., is planning a system that would pump 23 million gallons a day of purified wastewater into the ground; the water will eventually travel to a supply well and be reclaimed for drinking use.
Water recycling is just one of a number of tactics parched cities — many of which have faced water shortages for years — are using. “Demand is growing, and supply is pretty much staying static,” says Wade Miller, executive director of the WateReuse Association, a nonprofit in Alexandria, Va., that promotes water recycling.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Villiaragosa is coming around to the realities of Southern California’s water situation:
Recurring droughts and growing populations are increasing the allure of recycling. In Los Angeles, groundwater contamination in the San Fernando Valley, where the majority of the city’s groundwater supply is produced, has limited water available for pumping. “If we don’t commit ourselves to conserving and recycling water, we will tap ourselves out,” says Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a statement.
In San Diego, plans to augment reservoirs with recycled water have been met with staunch resistance, but residents there already drink recycled water, whether they realize it or not:
Skeptics may feel squeamish about drinking what used to be toilet water, Mr. Peters says, but San Diego already receives at least some wastewater from other cities that discharge treated sewage water into the Colorado River. “The Colorado River is not filled with Dasani,” Mr. Peters says. “That’s where we get our water from.”
Read the rest of this story from the Wall Street Journal by clicking here.
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