Can someone explain what the deal with this is? According to this articlePlans by water officials to pump recycled toilet water into Los Angeles taps hit a major clog in the pipeline on Tuesday as a city leader urged a suspension of the “disgusting” project before it even began.
Isn’t recycling sewage back into drinking water done in a lot of cities in America? I wasn’t aware it was something abnormal. Anybody know what the deal is here?
In this world, you must be oh-so smart, or oh-so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.
‘Isn’t recycling sewage back into drinking water done in a lot of cities in America? I
wasn’t aware it was something abnormal. Anybody know what the deal is here?’
No, it’s made into non-potable water for watering city lawns.
Most of the time, they treat it & dump it into the ocean where you eat fish that love it. sigh
Well, hush mah mouth. How Stuff Works also covers “sewage”. I thought it was just for gadgets and widgets.
The treated water goes out into the river/lake/ocean, not into the municipal potable water pipes.
No wonder folks in L.A. are upset. I’d be upset, too. One slip at the water treatment plant and I’m making my coffee with–ick, I don’t even want to think about it.
If they’re so gung-ho on water conservation in Southern California, I suggest they look at overall swimming pool usage. :rolleyes:
Actually, a lot of treated sewage ends up in other people’s drinking water. Sacramento, for instance, lets all its sewer discharge return to the Sacramento River, where it is scooped up later and sent to LA.
The main issues are 1) level of treatment and 2) dillution factor. I would think that water from a tertiary level treatment plant wouldn’t need much dillution to be drinkable. Others with more data can answer as to the drinkability of such effluvium.
I don’t think L.A. gets their water downstrem of Sacramento, I think it mostly comes from runoff from the foothills of the Sierras. And remember, since this is going to L.A., even the bears come out of the mountains and use restrooms, so as not to taint the water of celebrities.
Ummm… am I missing something here? Given that I don’t think much water spontaniously appears on earth out of the void, and that there’s gazillions of humans and animals drinking it every day, isn’t the chances of ever having non-recycled water pretty much nil? It’s been through someone or something’s kidneys before, people.
ZenBeam, sorry, but the largest water project in California is the California Aqueduct, which has its intake in the San Joaquin/Sacramento River delta. The water goes, among other places, to feed the LA thirst consumption. It’s hard to see the intake on the map, though if you click on State Projects you can see it better. Given that water in the delta pretty much mixes up, one has to conclude that at least some of Sacramento’s effluvium can make it to L. A. And if it didn’t, Stockton’s would (its discharged into the San Joaquin River via tributaries).
Mexico doesn’t have sewer treatment like us, they just dump it all into the ocean. Then it sometimes floats up to SD or LA. Millions of gallons, too. ick
