By Chad Love

It's hard to overstate just how pernicious and devastating the effects of the ongoing drought in the southern plains have been. Lakes and rivers are drying up, city water supplies are dwindling, fish and wildlife are suffering and Texas alone has suffered over $5 billion in agricultural losses. Many are now asking if the drought is part of a paradigm shift in how we view water usage and conservation in this country. How much of a paradigm? Many cities are now actively looking at recycling wastewater into drinking water.

From this story in the Christian Science Monitor:

This summer, Texas' drought of the century is an uncomfortable reminder that often there just isn't enough water to go around. But the 40 consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures and minuscule rainfall may also be boosting the case for a new freshwater source being developed in Big Spring, Texas, and surrounding cities.

With a waste-water-to-drinking-water treatment plant now under construction, Big Spring will soon join the growing list of cities that use recycled sewage water for drinking water ˆ a practice that the squeamish call "toilet to tap." The trend is expanding as climbing temperatures and dry weather across the West force environmentalists, politicians, and citizens to find newer, better solutions to freshwater resources.

No water for fishing, no water for hunting, no water for growing food and increasingly, no water for drinking. Thoughts? If "toilet to tap" meant more water for recreational needs like hunting and fishing, would you be willing to do it? Anyone drinking recycled wastewater already?

Comments (4)

from CL3 wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

I wonder that if we recycle waste water, will we be "recycling" all of the medicines that people take as well? can these things be filtered out? I'm not sure 100% of any meds one might take gets metabolized fully...?

I'm not sure I'd be too pleased to have to have my family drink this. yikes.

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from Greenhead wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Everyone who lives in a city on a river already drinks recycled water. The cities upstream use the water, then treat their sewage and dump it in the river. Then your city pulls it out and treats it for drinking. This is nothing new, they are just making the loop smaller.

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from hockey86 wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Everything is drying up but I guarantee you that people are still watering their lawns. We went thru a pretty nasty little drought here in NC last year but you could watch people pour hundreds of gallons of water on their grass daily. Quite a few have wells and they think that's an unlimited supply because they don't see it drying up like the lakes and rivers.

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from Douglas wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Glad I live at the top of the watershed in a place where it rains plenty.
I hear you CL3, the St. Lawrence river is chock full of meds, vitamins, etc that people have passed thru their bodies.

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from Greenhead wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Everyone who lives in a city on a river already drinks recycled water. The cities upstream use the water, then treat their sewage and dump it in the river. Then your city pulls it out and treats it for drinking. This is nothing new, they are just making the loop smaller.

+4 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from CL3 wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

I wonder that if we recycle waste water, will we be "recycling" all of the medicines that people take as well? can these things be filtered out? I'm not sure 100% of any meds one might take gets metabolized fully...?

I'm not sure I'd be too pleased to have to have my family drink this. yikes.

+3 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from hockey86 wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Everything is drying up but I guarantee you that people are still watering their lawns. We went thru a pretty nasty little drought here in NC last year but you could watch people pour hundreds of gallons of water on their grass daily. Quite a few have wells and they think that's an unlimited supply because they don't see it drying up like the lakes and rivers.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Douglas wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago

Glad I live at the top of the watershed in a place where it rains plenty.
I hear you CL3, the St. Lawrence river is chock full of meds, vitamins, etc that people have passed thru their bodies.

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