Drought forces Texas town to consider reusing wastewater to drink.

[powderman]

         Drought forces Texas town to consider reusing wastewater  Published September 22, 2012
FoxNews.com       The Texas drought is forcing one city to consider a direct reuse of wastewater as drinking water.
Because of the lack of water, the town of  Brownwood may tap into their wastewater by installing a system that cycles toilet water through a series of treatment plants and right back into the municipal water supply, MyFoxAustin reports.
   
"The drought can be a very persuasive argument to look for new sources of water," Jorge Arroyo, the Director of Innovative Water Technologies with the Texas Water Development Board told MyFoxAustin.
 
With the state population expected to hit 50 million people in 50 years, Arroyo says new water resources must be found.
The idea of building a toilet to faucet water system has some residents questioning the sanitation. Bob Valentine and his wife reaction to this idea saying, "somebody better have a real good filtration system."
 
The Director of Utilities in Brownwood, David Harris says the hard sell is not convincing residents that treated wastewater idea will work.
"I'd tell you what is hard it is hard to explain to a community of 20,000 that we have to close down the restaurants and that we have to close down the schools and the industries because we don't have water," Harris told MyFoxAustin.
 
Much of the state remains under drought conditions and community water systems are struggling under the dry conditions. The situation is serious but Arroyo says there is still time to develop a plan.
 
Building plants to treat salt water is a key part of the state plan. The water would come out of the Gulf and from oceans of underground aquifers.
But Brownwood does not have an aquifer to tap into.
 
Harris is confident the wastewater filtration system will work saying, "this is my life my career my licenses everything I have is on the line for this. And I wouldn't do it if it was."
Pending two more reviews, construction of the new system could begin by February of next year.
Click here for more from MyFoxAustin.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/22/drought-forces-texas-town-to-consider-reusing-wastewater/#ixzz27DQ0RGK5

[FPH]

El Paso already treats waste water.....nothing new......we also treat brine water.

[Empty Quiver]

They do it all the time along the lower Mississippi. Gotta come to Itasca Mn. if you want fresh.

[Curtis]

Yep, All of the reservoirs around the DFW Texas metro-mess that we get our drinking water from have wastewater treatment plants discharging treated effluent either directly into the reservoirs or into their tributaries.  I feel ok about that, as the alternative is to run out of good water.  I hope the regulation and oversight that is in place for those systems continues to do its job though.  I think the biggest danger is floods or large storms where rainwater invades the system and overwhelms the wastewater treatment plant.  In that case, they have no choice but to release it untreated.  There have been only one or two of those types of events here in my memory.
 
Curtis
 
P.S.  I read the OP again and it did say "direct reuse".  I guess what I alluded to would be "indirect".  Sorry.

[Dixie Dude]

Don't know why there isn't more effort to use your waste washing machine water to flush.  Washing machine water runs into a collection barrel, then is pumped back to the toilets for flushing.  It is just "gray" water with a little soap, because most of the water is used for rinsing.  Put in a blue toilet bowl cleaner and most people would never know.  About 1/3 of water use is for washing machines, 1/3 for flushing, and 1/3 for bathing, cooking, and drinking.  Some even collect their bath or shower water and recycle it back through. 

[Curtis]

Dixie Dude, it is funny how laws and regulations run counter to good conservation and being "green".  I run my air conditioner condensate drain to a garden hose and use the constant trickle to keep my new trees healthy.  With this method I've even saved one tree that I didn't think was going to make it.  However city building codes say that air conditioner condensate must drain into the sewer.  I'm sure that collecting and using gray water for any pupose would also be "verboten" here in the big city.
 
Curtis

[SwampThing762]

Easy enough to do....just run it through a quality viral purifier like a Berkey or Sawyer(with bucket kit).  Great thing to have for an aCOMS event.

ST762

[Dixie Dude]

The system I saw was legal.  First, you run the washing machine water into a drum or tank seperate from your sewer system.  Then you disconnect your toilet(s) from the fresh water supply.  The you install a pressure pump in the collection tank or drum, which pumps the seperate gray water back through the toilets.  Seperate system.  The toilets are connected to the sewage system.  Nasa developed it.  Saw a cheaper homemade version in Mother Earth News several years ago. 

[Ranger99]

our problems here are actually folks moving
to places where there are not enough resources
to support a formerly urban-type lifestyle-
i.e. 45 minute showers, daily lawn watering,
poor laundry habits ( using wash machine for
one or two pieces of clothing) frequent car
washings with the water running, etc.


there are fewer folks like myself who had an
older generation to teach an appreciation of
having water at the turn of a handle, as opposed
to hauling water by the bucket from a creek or
a shallow well.


there's no substitute for potable water.

[Empty Quiver]

There is absolutely no excuse for watering lawns in a semi-arid to arid climate. If you want a tropical paradise move somewhere else.

[kennyd]

Aurora, CO has a system to reuse water that otherwise would be "lost" down the river to Nebraska.  It is large and expensive, casuing us to have $5.30 or so per thousand bills for the first 20,000, then rises.


The neighbor has a grey water system he built himself--not legally.  Colorado law won't even let you catch rain water, it belongs to someone who gets the runoff in the rivers.  That is how Aurora can catch and reuse it's runoff; it is originally water from the mountain areas that would not drain here without tunnels and pumping.  Denver has senior water rights and a good system, Aurora has junior rights, so gets only water after older users have theirs.  So much for sprawling cities on the plains.


Water is gold in arid states.  It can and will run uphill toward money.


Someday people will have to admit that maybe agriculture is necessary for survival, too.


The aquifers are being overdrawn, and maybe, despite qualms, the rural people also should be on meters.

[Ranger99]

check out users like the ozarka bottled
water co. a friend of mine lives close to
one of their pumping facilities.
they're pumping 110,000 gallons of
water a day from the aquifer in the
county where he lives.
ozarka is a dirty word around there.
a lot of folks wells have gone dry.

[powderman]

I use the wash water for flowers and garden all summer. I was not aware that sewer water could be cleaned enough to drink, I've learned something. POWDERMAN. 

[magooch]

It hasn't rained here in eighty-some days, but it would be a cold day in hell that I would ever use recycled water for anything.  I guess there are just some places that are unfit for human habitation. 
 

[Empty Quiver]

It hasn't rained here in eighty-some days, but it would be a cold day in hell that I would ever use recycled water for anything.  I guess there are just some places that are unfit for human habitation.

You haven't been thirsty enough then. I understand your sentiment but it's a pretty good bet you have and did not even know it. Unless you have always drank well water it's unlikely you have avoided treated wastewater. Plenty of water has been run through generating stations, coal fired and nuclear, along rivers... several times, before it gets down stream to a municipal water supply. Clean water is clean water, it's like saying you won't eat an apple that has been dirty.

[magooch]

It hasn't rained here in eighty-some days, but it would be a cold day in hell that I would ever use recycled water for anything.  I guess there are just some places that are unfit for human habitation.

You haven't been thirsty enough then. I understand your sentiment but it's a pretty good bet you have and did not even know it. Unless you have always drank well water it's unlikely you have avoided treated wastewater. Plenty of water has been run through generating stations, coal fired and nuclear, along rivers... several times, before it gets down stream to a municipal water supply. Clean water is clean water, it's like saying you won't eat an apple that has been dirty.

Yeah, I guess one could make the argument that every molecule of water on the earth has been contaminated at one time, or the other and that nature recycles it, but I think about the artificial systems that are invented by man and operated by man.  At some point, you have to have a lot of faith in how it is operated and maintained.  Sooner, or later someone, or something is going to screw up.
 
Of course all water systems have some sort of treatment--except some wells--but the thought of starting with toilet water is too much.  Luckily, where I live, water is our most abundant resource.  Our water doesn't actually come from the Columbia River, but she rolls on by--eternally.  Our water actually comes from a smaller river that feeds into the Columbia, but even that is about to be replaced by water from wells.