A diner sips tap water at an eatery in Orange County, Calif. The county converts treated sewage into drinking water. (Mary Knox Merrill – Staff)
Water’s odyssey from sewer to cup
The water utility in Orange County, Calif., has been drawing attention since it opened the world’s largest water recycling facility of its kind in January.
By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ July 30, 2008 edition
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Staff writer Michael B. Farrell discusses Orange County's method of turning sewer water into clean, drinkable water.
Fountain Valley, Calif.
Tap water has never had so many fans. From neighboring states to distant countries, admirers have been traveling here to see – and drink – what’s coming from the faucets in thousands of southern California homes.
Orange County’s water utility has been drawing the gaze of engineers, scientists, and policymakers since it opened the world’s largest water recycling facility of its kind in January to scrub clean treated wastewater and turn it into drinking water.
Now, many of those admirers want to replicate Orange County’s model of replenishing freshwater supplies using purified sewer water. Los Angeles, San Jose, south Florida, and other locales are pursuing similar projects, which experts say are essential for coping with water scarcity likely to be associated with global warming.
“For much of the world, water reuse is going to become a fact of life. The Orange County project is a model for the world,” says William Cooper, director of the Urban Water Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. “When you have a precious resource like water, you have to do everything you can to protect it.”
The county’s $480 million Groundwater Replenishment System takes already-treated wastewater from the sanitation district next door and sends it through a rigorous three-step cleaning process. It’s washed through microfiltration, pressed through rows of reverse osmosis membranes, and then blasted with ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide. After 45 minutes, out comes clean, drinkable water.
The final product doesn’t go directly to the tap. Instead, half of it flows into a seawater barrier and the other half into a freshwater pond that replenishes the county’s groundwater basin. In the end, the recycled water makes up about 20 percent of the drinking water for roughly 2.3 million people.
It’s not necessarily the technology that has garnered Orange County such attention from water utilities around the globe. Recycling wastewater has been going on to lesser degrees elsewhere for some time. What has intrigued many is that the system met almost no public resistance when it came online in January.
“Technologically, it’s almost trivial for us to do this now. The key is to get public acceptance and political buy-in,” says Dr. Cooper, an early pioneer in water reuse practices.
And that was something Orange County worked hard to do from the beginning, spending $4 million in public outreach over 10 years. Water utility officials in Orange County had seen a similar plan squashed in San Diego when the recycling issue became politicized and the public turned away from the idea of turning toilet water into tap water.
“We talked to just about anyone who would listen to us,” says Michael Markus, general manager of the Orange County Water District, estimating that the county delivered about 700 speeches on its plans over a five-year period. “And it paid dividends because we had no opposition to the project.”
Orange County has long been out front in trying to reduce its long-term dependence on imported water from the Colorado River and northern California, the two water sources for dry and thirsty southern California. It launched Water Factory 21 in 1975, which, at the time, included the world’s largest reverse osmosis plant.
The county’s new recycling plant replaces Water Factory 21 and has the capacity to churn out 70 million gallons of purified water per day. Right now, it averages about 50 million gallons, essentially because its not getting enough water from the wastewater plant.
For it to produce more, says Mr. Markus, people need to flush more.
Even though the community has embraced the idea of adding recycled sewage into their drinking water supply, many still don’t realize the potential shortfalls the county could face as the population grows and rainfall decreases, says Markus.
“The process does not make up for not conserving water in other ways,” he says. “We live in a desert. [But] people take it for granted that we have all the water we need. That’s just not the case.”
While high-tech recycling efforts like this one have great potential in developed nations to reduce strains on natural resources, say experts, large-scale purification systems are out of reach for developing countries where water problems are severe and becoming worse.
That’s a problem that keeps Cooper awake nights. But, he says, just getting water to many of the world’s poorest would be a meaningful start, and using simple methods of cleaning, coupled with eduction, will help save lives.
On a recent weekday at the Fountain Valley, Markus, the general manager, strode past the rows of pipes and pumps that process the county’s new source of drinking water. At the end of the final stage – where the water is flashed with ultraviolet light – clear water flows from a faucet. He fills up a cups and takes a swig. “Tastes like water,” he says.
For the time being, regulators won’t allow the water district to deliver its recycled water directly to the tap. But it’s just a matter of time until that changes, Markus predicts.
“Like anything,” he says, “you need time to prove to the public that it’s the right thing to do.”
[Editor’s note: The original version of a photo caption misidentified the location of a water treatment facility.]
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Comments
2. Mary Markus | 07.31.08
I am proud of the part the Orange County Grand Jury’94-’95 had in supporting this project. It was accomplished in spite of the Bankruptcy.
3. Practical Perspective | 07.31.08
And you think that our current system is so secure that that type of contamination won’t occur now? Take into consideration the scenarios we have; dry up our remaining water supplies and suffer or take care of it now with recycling water? The water that they are recycling now is HIGHER than drinking water standards.
And yes technically 1 drop of wastewater would be considered contamination, but it would not be enough to make anyone sick.
4. Dave | 07.31.08
3. Practical Perspective | 07.31.08
And you think that our current system is so secure that that type of contamination won’t occur now? Take into consideration the scenarios we have; dry up our remaining water supplies and suffer or take care of it now with recycling water? The water that they are recycling now is HIGHER than drinking water standards.
And yes technically 1 drop of wastewater would be considered contamination, but it would not be enough to make anyone sick.
I agree with you. But just one time the system could fail. Look at the food that has been contaminated, Meat and everything else.
5. Tom | 07.31.08
Don’t be an idiot. Your tap water, much like other things related to your everyday lives (and body) is already somewhat dirty. This process makes water MUCH cleaner than in nature. It does not fail in the way that you assume above, much like how the drinking water you consume now doesn’t suddenly fail and make you sick. Nothing in this process is teetering on the brink of disaster; it is safe!! Please don’t be an unnecessary alarmist without knowledge of the process.
6. Ronald | 07.31.08
This is such an exciting way to conserve water and to help the environment at the same time.
Reclaimed water, (including the urine of AIDS infected drug addicts) is the only way to go. All my friends and I can hardly wait until we get a taste when this progressive technological advance comes to our community.
Ronald
7. Sunshine Smiles | 07.31.08
Sorry, but this is totally unappetizing to me…Water that was once human waste? I would move first!!!
8. Adam | 07.31.08
Whoa. Looks like I won’t be heading down to Laguna Beach to visit my neices anytime soon. Or ever. I’m gonna have to have a few words with their mother. What are you people, French?
That. Is. Just. Nasty.
9. Frank | 07.31.08
Tom, you’re the one who shouldn’t be an idiot. Plant failures are the norm in waste water treatment facilities. They call them “system burps”. Furthermore, don’t repeat the old bromide that all water is “somewhat dirty”. Water that is pumped from deep well aquifers which has taken hundreds if not thousands of years to migrate into the aquifer is pristine and clean. I advise you to ge educated on what hazards exist with this PR promoted treated sewage wastewater planning that passes for conservation in this country.
10. Juan Pablo | 07.31.08
For me the Big Chuckle is paraphrasing the sentence, “To get a glass of (recycled waste) water one must first flush a toilet.”. COOL!!!
11. James | 07.31.08
Well, why not…….. The State of California is GIVING FREE CONDOMS to inmates in State Penitentaries!!!!!!!! I think toilet water would be much more desirable than being raped by Bubba…
12. Barbara | 07.31.08
All of our drinking water has been contaminated one way or another - that is why the water is treated before being piped to our homes. People get water from lakes where in the natural cycle, fish die and decompose and I don’t see people questioning that besides all the fish excretement in the water - as long as the water is monitored during treatment, it should be as safe as any other source unless you have a natural artesian well in your back yard.Get real - astronauts consume ‘recycled” water - think people in the space station get fresh water - it is as safe as any other water as long as it is treated and monitored. We need to be even more agressive in keeping the planet green if anything.
13. Dave Reid | 08.01.08
Understand that ALL water is recycled water. One plant dumps its treated waste water into a stream or lake and another sucks in it. People don’t realize this but plants in Wisconsin send treated waster water into rivers that plants in Illinois suck in. This plant just does it more directly, although still uses treated water.
15. Doug | 08.01.08
Better yet you all ought to come on down to Houston Texas and see where it all ends up at… we are still drinking water too after it’s passed thru all of the upper states and every one else’s kidneys……
16. Douglas R. Murray | 08.01.08
Frank, I agree with Tom that you are an idiot. Others here have said it as well as I can; If your local drinking water comes from a river or even a well, it is waste water discharged from somewhere else anyway, perhaps within the past few days. I suggest you read the other related comments. As someone who has spent decades in the water industry, you and others here commenting about drug urine are simply uneducated about the facts, which is understandable, but do us a favor and don’t spread your ignorance around to others, under the guise of an expert. And if you are a professional with these beliefs, you should be fired immediately and take up another line of work, because you couldn’t be more wrong. This is safe, and proven, period.
17. Tom | 08.01.08
Frank, all you have to realize is that a reverse osmosis filter (as mentioned in the article) cannot physically allow contaminates to pass. The water is completely sanitized against even natural bacteria and viruses.
You’re confusing a waste water plant bypass (due to a sudden surge) with drinking water contamination. Plants like this do this everyday and discharge water to our lakes, rivers, streams, and even your underground super-clean water sources, and have been for a hundred years.
This recycled water is as clean or CLEANER than ANY source, guaranteed, or it can’t pass through the system and out.
A great idea for modern communities.
18. Common sense | 08.01.08
Such enthusiasm for drinking ****, seems everyone now must sacrifice for the good of the planet, no wonder the greeny movement is just another facade for fascist/communist aspirations. Let me remind you tom that reverse osmosis does not get rid of fluoridation in water nor pharmaceutical traces already seeping into sewage. California no doubt has higher flush pills down the toilet rates. And these systems are certain to fail, a power outage would stop that ultra violet light, the reverse membranes would get dirty and stop working efficiently, a myriad of problems just waiting to happen, and if the system fails once all that **** water will be in your glass no time.
19. Ronald | 08.01.08
Uh Doug 16;
If we are already drinking sewer water, why is the author wasting his time telling us of more horrors yet to come? Why are the promoters telling us about the great technological advances they have made since Californians last rejected this idea several years ago?
The fact is, that most of California’s water is used for agricultural purposes, not drinking. Why not use reclaimed sewage on our friends, the plants, and let them filter the “stuff” out?
Ronald
20. Luise Perenne | 08.03.08
First of all, ALL of Earth’s water supply is recycled whether in snowpacks, glaciers, sea ice , waterways or oceans,etc. In all its various forms, it’s CONSTANTLY being recycled by Mother Nature; the seas evaporate and form clouds, the clouds bring rain or snow, from whence all the river water is generated. Today there isn’t one more drop of H2O than when the primeval storms rained down upon our planet countless millions of years ago.
I happen to live in Fountain Valley, CA, and have no complaint whatsoever with the quality of tap water available here.
21. Madam_S | 08.04.08
Well, we see here why this project failed before: Because ignorant people go around talking like experts! (”Common Sense” needs some)
1. The water is filtered through the ground, Mother Nature’s way, AFTER it is already cleaner than our lake and river water (which people are peeing and dumping all kinds of stuff in), and which people all over the US and the world are already drinking!
2. Until now, we’ve been pumping the waste water (with LESS treatment) into our lakes and streams and oceans, and then swimming in it! How is that better?
Kudos to Orange County for doing something smart. The reason it’s being done now is because they educated the public and politicians there. Unfortunately people other places haven’t gotten smart yet.
22. Quincy S. | 08.05.08
You hit the nail right on the head, Madam_S.
Common Sense, you obviously have none. Several on this thread have already mentioned your failed logic, so I won’t berate you any more, but I will say that if the power is out, the generator will run. If the generator doesn’t run, the pumps don’t run. If the pumps don’t run, the water doesn’t get out into the distribution system. Duh! You obviously have no idea how treatment plants operate or what they actually do.
After reading your other comments, do you have a hidden agenda, or are you just that stupid?
23. Lauren | 08.07.08
I’m from Los Osos, Ca. and we are in desperate need of a sewer because we are polluting one of the last 3 estuaries in califoria. It is uneducated people fighting over this issue for the last 30 years that have cause this huge mess. Now we have regulators threateneing fines and mass eviction if we don’t get our *%@*! together (ha, ha). Anyway, I’ve been advocating for this type of technology for a long time but it is the public who hold it back. We cannot drink the water that comes out of the tap now because it is polluted with our waste already. I will drink “toilet to tap” water. It is clean, pure, refreshng and like someone said already, it has been through Mother Nature’s systems probably a few hundred times now. All water is recycled wastewater. Open your eyes, mind, heart “common sence”. It’s about your future too.
24. david | 08.07.08
The last step is that the water is pumped into the ground and takes years before it reaches the faucets. There are a lot of checks and balances in place.
And anyway, where do you think your water comes from? Humans dump treated sewage into the Colorado River which is our “non-reused” water source. Treated sewage is dumped into New York’s water supply as well. Our water supplies are contaminated by fish, bacteria, animals. It doesn’t come, as Pat Morrison put it, from angels’ butts. There’s too much ignorance in these comments.
25. Maria | 08.09.08
My main concern is what if something goes wrong with the machinery that is built to clean this water? This could very well happen. As the saying goes sh** happens and this is previous sewerage water. In this case, I sure as **** would not want this to be placed in my body. Anything can malfunction. God forbid for Hepatitis or a parasite in the water that will give a person H-Pilory (not sure of spelling) Truthfully, just the thought of where it came doesn’t exactly appeal to me. I understand that technology is trying to find a means just in case one day there is a water shortage. We have something as a back up system. Let’s just put it this way. I hope their isn’t a day that I will wish for water in my life. I will do all that I can to not drink this water, no offense to anyone.
26. Aureliano Rodriguez | 08.26.08
I, too, work with water in a small town that is on septic tanks. Our tap water is constantly monitored my the county health department. Occasionally, we get a failing notice that our water has high, or an unsafe, level bacterial count. What Orange county is doing wonderful: the treating water is safe enough to drink right from the plant if needed. However, that safe water is pumped into the ground for further filtration by mother nature. What’s more safer than that? Hurray for Orange county!!
27. Drew Wood | 09.13.08
I was amused reading the above comments, first,everyone should tour Waste Water Treatment Plants and know the sources of their water, industries & their chemicals, etc., secondly,they should understand RO Membrane efficiency & efficacy, and the various Disinfection Systems used with them, thirdly, we have human beings monitoring all these high tech mechanisms, fourthly, read the following research journal article recently published; Environmental Science & Technology; 2008;42 (17) pp6310;(NEWS) D.O.I.:10.1021/es801944f.
I formerly (in San Diego) was involved in High Purity Water Treatment, Purification, & Conditioning (Dialysis,RO methodology) and now Air Quality. Most recent research is focused on by-product formation from chemicals, and their effect as endocrine disruptors, especially in children. Air filtration systems cannot filter them out, practically.
My specialty is protecting children’s breathing in their indoor environment, their bedroom and in their classroom, asthma, allergy, and others effected by polluted ambient air in the submicron range (nano). Science is showing just about every disease children have is related to these pollutants and their endless chemical by-products. Quite a challange to say the least! Water needs similar in-depth analysis and treatment methodology!! Thanks!!
28. PWP | 10.11.08
What one needs to do is look at the viable technology options. We have the means of filtration and disinfection to make the consumption of water safe, it’s the laws, governments, and regulations that you have to be worried about. The technology is a non issue.
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1. Common sense | 07.31.08
Until one day one of the purification systems fails or is not maintained properly and everyone chugs down water full of ****. Just takes a drop of waste water to contaminate fresh water.