California regulators have approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses
When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: An ice skating rink near Disneyland, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the Central Valley.
And — coming soon — kitchen faucets.
California regulators on Tuesday approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses.
It’s a big step for a state that has struggled for decades to secure reliable sources of drinking water for its more than 39 million residents. And it signals a shift in public opinion on a subject that as recently as two decades ago prompted backlash that scuttled similar projects.
Millions of people in the US are already getting treated wastewater when they get their water out of a river downstream from another town’s treated wastewater discharge
I think the only difference with this proposal is that they “skip the middleman”. The water is never released back into a natural watercourse.
But yes, I grew up in TX drinking water that had been returned to the Trinity post-treatment by locations north.
Consider New Orleans! They’re drinking the wastewater of over half the country, as well as agricultural runoff