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Sewage that’s clean enough to drink

Posted by: Maven on December 16, 2008 at 8:14 am

From Time Magazine:

One of the richest residential areas in America, the L.A. suburb is known for swimming pools, golf courses and lush lawns all of which need water. But like much of southern California, Orange County is dry and getting drier, and the underground aquifer from which the county pumps much of its water is slowly draining. Importing water from wetter northern California is an option, but an expensive one (at least $530 per acre-foot, or about 326,000 gallons, of water); meanwhile, population growth means that officials have to do something with the increasing amount of wastewater that residents and businesses are producing.

Orange County water officials decided to solve both problems at the same time. The result is the Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS), a glistening, $480 million facility that sits next to an older sewage treatment plant. The Orange County GRS takes in about 70 million gallons of wastewater a day, puts it through a multistep cleaning process, then discharges the treated water into Orange County’s underground aquifers. About half is used to form a barrier against seawater, which has been infiltrating groundwater sources as the county has dried up, while the other half slowly filters into the aquifers that supply drinking water for the county’s 2.3 million residents. The GRS is believed to be the world’s largest facility dedicated to what’s known as indirect potable reuse, if you’re in favor of it, or toilet to tap, if you’re not. But there’s a better term: water recycling, and it might be the world’s answer to the clean water crisis.

Read more from Time Magazine by clicking here.

December 16, 2008 · Filed Under Recycled Water

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One Response to “Sewage that’s clean enough to drink”

  1. L.A. is a Judicial Hellhole, Di-Fi Not Running For Gov, Padres for Sale | Johnny California on December 16th, 2008 10:20 am

    [...] How bad is California’s water crisis?  In Orange County, they’re recycling raw sewage into drinking water.  Yum! [Aquafornia] [...]

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