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Drought-Stricken Texas Town Taps Urine For Water

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-important-to-stay-hydrated dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Texas is in the midst of a drought so severe that local water management teams have decided to distribute reclaimed wastewater (aka urine). The Colorado River Municipal Water District in West Texas has broken ground on a $13 million plant that will capture treated wastewater and ready it for redistribution. After being run through microfilters and undergoing reverse osmosis, slimy sewage is cleansed with peroxide and ultraviolet light. This intense process ensures that any pharmaceuticals and carcinogens are removed, and that the H2O stands up to drinking water regulations."

4 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. About time. by cusco · · Score: 5, Informative

    About bloody time that some city in the US starts doing this. Did you know that the outflow from the Los Angeles sewage treatment plant is actually cleaner than the water that they pump (at ridiculous cost) over the mountains to the potable water intake?

    The capital of Botswana has been doing this since the 1960s. Nice to know that Texas is finally catching up to sub-Saharan Africa.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    1. Re:About time. by ATestR · · Score: 3, Informative

      Don't know what he means in this particular case, but when engineers talks about contaminants in water, they are usually talking about bacterial counts as well as nitrates and other dissolved compounds. Sanitary waste water (in most of US) has to be cleaned to certain standards as far as bacterial counts as well as nitrate levels before it can be released to streams/rivers, or reused as "reclaimed" water, usually for irrigation.

      Any water used for water systems (drinking water) must be cleaned to an even higher standard before use. Unless you source is a mountain spring (not a creek!), you are almost certain to have to process it before use. The original poster's point was that often the incoming water is less sanitary than the discharge water of a sewage treatment plant.

      Come to think of it, I saw a documentary about the canal/pipe system that supplies LA a few weeks ago. I can readily believe that that water isn't too clean.

      --
      âoeAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
  2. Troll headline? by zygotic+mitosis · · Score: 3, Informative

    Urine? Well, yes, but also the feces and the nasty water from industry. As someone has pointed out already, if your WTP collects from the river, you are already drinking treated sewage water.

    At our plant, we have a water reclamation facility at the end of our process, the same type of facility used at the water treatment plant upstream. A WRF is common, iirc, in CA, but is, afaik, the first of its kind here in MN. It is far more common to discharge without the additional filtering and contaminant removal provided by a WRF.

    The water we discharge is tested biweekly for ammonia and phosphorus and daily for total coliforms and biological oxygen demand. Ammonia and coliforms are non-detectable ~99% of the time. We are doing a very good job turning sewage into drinking water for the next town on the river.

    /lab intern at a WWTP

  3. This is nothing new by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Informative

    Arizona has been doing this for a long time. For the most part, the water treatment is less intense and it is distributed through a separate, non-potable system to be used for irrigation. Makes sense since it is cheaper (requires less filtration). However some of it is filtered further, and mixed in with water from wells and the CAP to go in to the drinking water.