FLOWING WATERS
TRANSPARENT IS NOT NECESSARILY CLEAN
Early in my newspaper reporting days, a local resident called me, outraged by a legal notice in the paper that a wastewater (sewage) treatment plant was going to dump 25,000 gallons of treated water into the adjacent river.
I visited the plant, and can still recall being engulfed by the pungent smell of chlorine as soon as I opened my car door. That was reassuring, as was an explanation of the process that includes extensive water quality testing. I remember the plant manager, a trusted friend, saying, “The water we release into the river is cleaner than what comes out of most faucets.”
It made sense at the time. It makes even more sense now, I found myself silently shouting at my TV recently. With expressions of thinly veiled disgust, news anchors offer inappropriate, editorial quips about a new law in California that makes it legal for municipalities to send purified wastewater back into the drinking supply. It is only the second state to do so, with Colorado leading the way, although it’s hard to imagine a bandwagon.
It doesn’t help that this level of water recycling has gained the nickname, Toilet to Tap.
Of course, extensive monitoring and testing will be required, with standards written into the legislation, to the point that few of us have ever benefitted from. Seriously, when was the last time you had your well water checked, or saw a report on your town or city water source?
And bottled water? The National Resources Defense Council has regularly looked at what lurks in that crinkly plastic (we won’t go into the plastic waste issue here) to often find chemical thresholds exceeded. Yes, it’s tested, but it’s still tap water, and the feds don’t require it to be safer than what comes out of your faucet.
Is California’s move a desperate measure, as the most populated state is impacted by drought? More importantly, will municipalities, currently not mandated to do so, pick up the ball?
You may be thinking you’ve heard about wastewater recycling elsewhere, because plenty of places have been doing it, but for non-potable uses like irrigation, ice rinks, snowmaking and industrial. True, that kind of recycling takes the pressure off of drinking water supplies. But as climate change impacts the latter across the globe, it’s becoming obvious it will not be enough for long.
Water management programs in places like Australia, Singapore, Israel, Namibia and South Africa have long been treating water to be reused up to the domestic level. What is it going to take, especially in the U.S., to overcome the “ick factor” and a lack of consumer confidence?
It will also take time. Places like Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County have recycling infrastructure in place that can be leveled up. Where there is nothing, predictions are that it will take a minimum of six years for the needed builds.
