" @emkeighcameron: I find that all so fascinating... it's like the apex of self-preservation! "
The impact of recycled water is SLOWLY being realized, but it will take many, many years (or a serious crisis, like a MAJOR drought) for us to stop being idiots about it. I agree that it would be a really awesome thing, if we could get it working. There are several legal and infrastructure issues outside of engineering that would be huge hurdles to overcome.
Just as an example, the plant I worked at was a 45 MGD (average) plant. And they had a filter plant that took a small percentage of the final effluent (the treated water, most of which got shot out to the Bay). The filter plant was designed to create 10 MGD of recycled water. Meaning it could, in theory, take about 20% of the final effluent and make recycled water out of it. But the plant operated at MUCH lower capacity; it made maybe 1MGD, or 800,000 GD tops. And that was because the WWTP literally could not SELL the water. Nobody could buy it.
The refineries up the street couldn't buy it (because the drinking water guys had rights to sell) and the golf courses that used thousands of gallons a day for irrigation couldn't but it (because the drinking water guys had rights to sell) and the car washes couldn't buy it (because the drinking water guys had rights to sell) and so forth. These weren't even drinking water applications! They were fucking industrial! It's madness, I tell you.
Keep in mind, that we here in North California are sending a huge amount of our water every day down to South California via pipelines, because they're in the middle of a big drought (plus there's no water there anyway). Think of all the money it takes to do that? Think of how much we could save (both in money and resources) if we didn't fucking WASTE water like this.
" Is it possible to purify the water we pee into clean water? "
Yup, it's entirely possible. It costs a little bit more money, but the leap from "clean and treated wastewater" to "clean and drinkable drinking water" is NOT a very large one. It certainly could be done with more frequency.
A) The water districts (not the sanitary districts, but the actual drinking/bathing water supply districts) have RIGHTS TO SELL. This means that they can muscle out wastewater recyclers. They are literally given priority in the eyes of the law. This is total bullshit for a couple of reasons. One, recycled drinking water is cheaper (once you add it all up) and two, drinking water districts sell perfectly good drinking water to companies that use it for industrial processes. Like refineries. Cooling water and cleaning water used in most refineries is DRINKING water. There's no need for it to be drinking water. It could be recycled water from a WWTP just as easily. And it would cost about 1/10 the price. But again, the water districts have right to sell, and so they get to charge the refineries tons of money and steal income from the wastewater districts.
B) Most people have an instant knee-jerk reaction against drinking recycled water. The idea that it came from crap water is just unacceptable to most public bodies. Which is stupid, but there's really nothing you can do about it.
EDIT: Also, it's kind of funny, water treatment is WAY EASIER than wastewater treatment. It's much less equipment intensive, much cheaper, and overall child's play compared to treating wastewater. This is why many wastewater engineers look down on water engineers with derision, because the water guys get all this preferential treatment and good press for doing pretty much nothing.
This, of course, isn't entirely warranted; they do a lot of good work, but clean water work doesn't compare to the difficulties of running a sanitary system.
"Some of the pictures were a bit shitty, though. Good luck getting your next job by the way! I'd hire you to deal with my toxic waste if it was my choice. "
Perhaps this is because it's 4AM here and I haven't yet slept, but I honestly went back through my pictures and was like "which ones are shittty :( " before I saw what you did there. I already got the job, but thanks for the vote of confidence, at this stage I'm just waiting to finish up my last semester in grad school :D
I like it, they should do it. It would probably fuck me over (because I use the hints pretty liberally) but whatever, it would make for some fun times.
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