Don't Eat The White Snow Either

loteck writes "An interesting article about an Australian ski resort that is converting human waste into freshly driven snow. The waste is converted "through a three-step purifying process of UV light filtration, ozonation and ultra-filtration", and they say it's "even cleaner than that made from nearby creek water." I think that says more about the creek than it does the waste."

Comments

Interesting, but...

[Latrommi]

Why not use the recycled water to fill up the toliets again instead of putting it on the mountainside. Not sure if I'd want to be skiing on a wastewater snow slope.

What would you consider "clean" ?

[NKJensen]

I wonder what the writer of the write-up think happen with all other human waste?

You and I both live in the middle of mother natures great recycler.

There is no such thing as to remove human waste, you may MOVE it at best.

Re:Creek?

[chamenos]

water purified from human waste can actually be cleaner than water purified through normal means. its just the idea that irks most people. singapore has started introducing water that is "reclaimed" from sewage for consumption. the purity of the water exceeded the standard set by the world health organization by quite a far margin. if i'm not wrong some places in america already use water reclaimed from sewage for consumption, so its not as if this is a completely new concept.

London water

[m00nun1t]

It's a widely known "fact" in London (not sure if it's an urban myth or not - I suspect not) that water goes through the system seven times. So, there's a good chance your tap water is someone elses piss. Their extensive filtration means the water is actually pretty good.

Anyway, waste liquid has to go somewhere - a ski slope seems pretty mild compared to many alternatives.

This is a good idea.

[Chanc_Gorkon]

I personally would not be the least bit squeamish about this. First off, they make filters capable of filter guiarda(sp) and other microbes out. Even if they don't filter it out you can get rid of it by irradiating the water, or heck BOILING the water will kill most creepy crawlys. They can also filter other things that ain't so nice out of the water. If they make a filter that can filter chlorine out of the water at your house, then this filter or a similar one could work in this machine. They also recycle water on the shuttle because the weight of water costs so much for them to carry it up. They'd rather use as much weight for carrying satellites and other things that can help generate revenue then water for the astronauts.

Second, and I know some may dispute this, if we are running out of water where does it go? Water that evaporates down here usually turns up as a cloud and then rain somewhere on the planet. I know the planet isn't a closed system, but this water has to go somewhere. It doesn't just zoom off into space. I think that those who claim know have no idea what they are talking about when there's a water shortage. There's oceans full of it just wating to be desalinized. If they can find a economical process for desalinization, then most water problems could be solved.

Re:If you drink out of the river...

[ackthpt]

and they say it's "even cleaner than that made from nearby creek water." I think that says more about the creek than it does the waste."

the concept of water purified through man-made means, as opposed to nature which most people are more used to. in singapore's case, they're currently pumping the purified water into reservoirs, just to let it sit in the open so the birds and fish can crap into it and let nature do a bit of its thing, before purifying it again to pump into the water supply. all this, just to satisfy the odd inhibitions that a lot of people have to consuming purified sewage. weak-minded people really do bother me sometimes.

Don't be so hasty to cast stones. Clearly there is a double standard, born of ignorance on the part of many. A small ski resort I visited used to pump icky water from a swamp and make snow from it. You could tell because the air smelled terrible when they were doing it and the snow had a yellowish tinge from algae. However, look at what advertising has told the consumer:

Beer from the land of sky blue waters (can you name it? :-)

Mountain spring water (yeah, right... all 50 zillion gallons of it every day, that's no spring it's a river, in Cal. it's probably pumped from Colorado or Owens River, read Cadillac Desert)

Then there's the simple test of putting two glasses of water in front of someone, filtered from the town well and recovered water. Don't tell them before they taste test, then see if they make a face and call a lawyer once you've explained one came from recovered water.

People have been trained, since before the Bible to avoid water touched by human waste, because bacteria and fungi which cause some pretty bad aflictions grow in it. That was wisdom, it may seem misguided, until you run a marketing campaign to change people's opinion, then catch the local water filtration manager cutting corners. It's probably happening in your town and you don't even know it.

Me, I put a filter on my drinking water, for whatever good it does. Which it does to some small noticable degree.

Water is getting poorer in quality and reuse isn't a new concept, but reuse is growing and people will need to accept it, because alternatives (desalination, for example) can be very expensive.