It's disappointing that desalinization has taken precedent over recycling water. There have been many developments in this area –including the one Bill Gates has been supporting [1] – yet despite being the more cost effective option, people can't get over the idea of drinking water that was poop.
Singapore has been recycling sewage into potable water for some time now. Although the majority is used in industrial applications requiring very pure water (e.g wafer fabs), some is added to the tap water:
NEWater is mainly used for industrial and air-con cooling purposes at wafer fabrication plants, industrial estates and commercial buildings. The biggest users of NEWater are wafer fabrication plants which require water quality that is even more stringent than water for drinking. NEWater is delivered to industrial customers via a dedicated pipe network.
During dry periods, NEWater is added to our reservoirs to blend with raw water. The raw water from the reservoir then goes through treatment at the waterworks before it is supplied to consumers as tap water. [1]
I'm in Northern California. My lawn is dead. I can get over it. Run the purple pipe into the aquifer already like Santa Ana does.
"When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap."
I'm a bit anxious about sewage to drinking water efforts.
While I'm fairly confident that we can eliminate most live pathogenic organisms from sewage with enough work, excreted toxins, hormones, and undigested pharmaceuticals are another matter. Diluting those through a watershed serves a real purpose that sewage treatment facilities are not up to replicating.
ddeck|10 years ago
NEWater is mainly used for industrial and air-con cooling purposes at wafer fabrication plants, industrial estates and commercial buildings. The biggest users of NEWater are wafer fabrication plants which require water quality that is even more stringent than water for drinking. NEWater is delivered to industrial customers via a dedicated pipe network.
During dry periods, NEWater is added to our reservoirs to blend with raw water. The raw water from the reservoir then goes through treatment at the waterworks before it is supplied to consumers as tap water. [1]
[1] http://www.pub.gov.sg/water/newater/Pages/default.aspx#newat...
beamatronic|10 years ago
"When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/magazine/10wastewater-t.ht...
mapt|10 years ago
While I'm fairly confident that we can eliminate most live pathogenic organisms from sewage with enough work, excreted toxins, hormones, and undigested pharmaceuticals are another matter. Diluting those through a watershed serves a real purpose that sewage treatment facilities are not up to replicating.
dharma1|10 years ago
http://www.ornl.gov/ornl/news/news-releases/2015/ornl-led-te...
RodrigoT|10 years ago
dharma1|10 years ago