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Texas Town Turns To Treated Sewage For Drinking Water
Scientific American reports that Wichita Falls, Texas has taken an unusual step, precipitated by the years-long drought that Texas has faced: it's using treated sewage for drinking water. From the article:
To launch what it calls its "Direct Potable Reuse Project," the city pipes water 12 miles from its wastewater treatment plant to this treatment facility where it goes through microfiltration. A pump pulls water through a module filled with fibers that removes most of the impurities. Then it is forced through a semi-permeable membrane that can remove dissolved salts and other contaminants. The process, called reverse osmosis, is used by the U.S. military, in ships and in the manufacture of silicon chips. The water then gets blended with lake water before going through the regular water treatment system. ... At 60 cents per 1,000 gallons, it's far cheaper than any other source of water, [Wichita Falls' public works director Russell] Schreiber said. ... He said there have been few complaints so far. A glass of the finished product, sampled at a downtown restaurant, tasted about average for West Texas.
not like the wild animals and fish don't piss and shit into our water
who drinks straight from a lake or river?
This really isn't much different than what nature would have ultimately done with the water right? Just accelerated mechanically. Not much different than what we would have to do for long duration space travel or colonization either.
Since you need to treat sewage before putting it in the ground, and ground water before putting it in the water supply, what is new about connecting those two points? Do people think the sewage magically stops being sewage once it leaves the system?
False. Water memory, a form of homeopathy, has been around since 1796, long pre-dating understanding of molecules. The idea of water memory comes from people who start with a conclusion, and grab random scientific jargon to supply "evidence". It's like science, but backwards and nonsensical. The specific "facts" people use to sell their fake cureall potions change over the years depending on what scientific buzzwords are popular at the time.
The only brain membrane that is of concern is the one that let's out greed driven bad ideas. The biggest risk with attempting to recycle storm water and sewerage as drinking water are right wing thinkers and cost saving or profit gaining short cuts. By far the majority of places when they attempt this do not do it as drinking water only as irrigation water, reason why, risk. The risk is enormous, you just have to keep in mind some extremely dangerous water borne diseases and just one system failure and now that whole town ends up with that disease, town goes bankrupt as a result of civil suit. I will be interested to see if they can get insurance coverage for this idea and how much it will cost. Personally based upon Texan ideal for taking money saving or profit gaining ring wing short cuts I'd be moving out rather than taking that chance.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
For all practical purposes and time scales it doesn't.
Just let it flow.