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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the mmmm-toilet-water dept.

From a marketing point of view, using treated sewage to create drinking water is a proposition that has proved difficult to sell to customers. Now John Schwartz writes in the NYT that as California scrambles for ways to cope with its crippling drought and the mandatory water restrictions imposed last month by Gov. Jerry Brown, enticing people to drink recycled water is requiring California residents to get past what experts call the “yuck” factor.

Efforts in the 1990s to develop water reuse in San Diego and Los Angeles were beaten back by activists who denounced what they called, devastatingly, “toilet to tap.” Orange County swung people to the idea of drinking recycled water with a special purification plant which has been operating since 2008 avoiding a backlash with a massive public relations campaign that involved more than 2,000 community presentations. The county does not run its purified water directly into drinking water treatment plants; instead, it sends the water underground to replenish the area’s aquifers and to be diluted by the natural water supply. This environmental buffer seems to provide an emotional buffer for consumers as well.

In 2000, Los Angeles actually completed a sewage reclamation plant capable of providing water to 120,000 homes — the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. The plan was abandoned after public outrage. Angelenos, it seemed, were too good to drink perfectly safe recycled water — dismissed as “toilet to tap.” But Los Angeles is ready to try again, with plans to provide a quarter of the city’s needs by 2024 with recycled water and captured storm water routed through aquifers. ”The difference between this and 2000 is everyone wants this to happen,” says Marty Adams. The inevitable squeamishness over drinking water that was once waste ignores a fundamental fact, says George Tchobanoglous: “When it comes down to it, water is water. Everyone who lives downstream on a river is drinking recycled water.”

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:50PM (#182050)

    We gonna deregulate everything. You want water, you fucking fight for it, neighbor against neighbor. You better build a fucking siege fortress around your fucking house, 'cause those fuckers gonna steal your water. Steal your water and kill your fucking ass. Better get some big ass guns to protect your water. We don't need no fucking regulations, we don't need no fucking rights, and we don't need no fucking laws. We only need big fucking guns. Fuck yeah!

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:56PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:56PM (#182052) Homepage

    There was an episode of Inspector Gadget where MAD used a gigantic space magnifying glass to evaporate all of the world's oceans so that MAD had total control over the water supply. Once that was achieved, they sold their drinking water to desperate thirsty populations at ridiculous rates.

    The moral of the Story? Los Angeles and its inhabitants should be destroyed by a gigantic space magnifying glass.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:12PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:12PM (#182079) Journal

    Deregulation! What are you, an idiot, or a Republican? But, as Mark Twain said. I repeat myself. Sure, see what happens when agriculture has to compete with real estate developers and golf courses. I mean, who needs food when you've got unregulated money?

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @10:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @10:15PM (#182109)

    You'd better this, you'd better that. I'm not scared. You know why? I'm going to build a moat! Let's see you get past that!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:17PM (#182348)

    "Stop drinking my moat, you bastards!"