California to up its recycling game

[MapleLeafFarmer]

When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: An ice skating rink in Ontario, 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.



source: Associated Press: Sacramento California


not sure how I feel about this? Glad my house well pumps out 25 gallon/minute with basically unlimited reserve

 

[GeoHorn]

What do you think distilled water is..?

How do you feel about the fact you are breathing one of Julius Caesars Phartts…?

The Trinity River flows thru Dallas on it’s way to Houston and Galveston Bay. Both cities got copious amounts of their water from the Trinity.

There used to be (when Houston had the Oilers) …a sign in the Dallas airport above the urinals on Cowboy/Oiler game-weekends…. the signs above the urinals said, “Please flush twice—- Houston Needs the Water!”

 

[Biker1mike]

Decades ago , us tree huggers at a big semiconductor plant, proved that our treated industrial/sanitary effluent was cleaner than the groundwater and ALL local drinking water supplies. When we tried to recycle into the potable water supply we were damn near hanged.
Over a million gallons a day from just one site was just pushed out to the local stream.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

Dr. Google says Canada has
- 0.48% of the worlds population
- 20% of the worlds surface water
- and 7% of the worlds renewable water flow (guessing this means rivers)


Recycling waste water is never something I have ever had to consider or read about.
In all honesty kinda happy thats the case.
I guess we just be spoiled
Solution through dilution is not something my generation and locale is familiar with.
Our drinking water almost always from wells or surface water (lakes)

 

[Biker1mike]

Dr. Google says Canada has
- 0.48% of the worlds population
- 20% of the worlds surface water
- and 7% of the worlds renewable water flow (guessing this means rivers)


Recycling waste water is never something I have ever had to consider or read about.
In all honesty kinda happy thats the case.
I guess we just be spoiled
Solution through dilution is not something my generation and locale is familiar with.
Our drinking water almost always from wells or surface water (lakes)

Dilution is not the solution for pollution has been a mantra for decades. Cradle to grave tracking means tracking a chemical from the time it is made until it is disposed of. All aspects are tracked. It may be changed during manufacturing, put to a drain or up a stack. No matter what, you need to know tons in and tons out. You can not dilute it to non-detectable science.
The old school of dilution was done away with decades ago. Flushing with copious amounts of water is a great way to get one hell of an EPA fine. I knew a few line managers that got caught and left the company to avoid what could have been criminal offenses. The company paid some very large fines as the environmental departments were not fooled when the numbers did not match. Chemical purchase records and very exact tracking of what was going up the stacks and out the pipe. We self reported. That kept the VP's out of court.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: An ice skating rink in Ontario, 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.



source: Associated Press: Sacramento California


not sure how I feel about this? Glad my house well pumps out 25 gallon/minute with basically unlimited reserve

I am pretty content with my spring water and well water too. I’ve had the recycled (grey) water at work…no thanks…I take a home filled bottle of water to work daily from home….ill take my chances with what Mother Earth filters for me.

Good for Cali…isn’t that the same state that spends billions on homeless and hasn’t figured out to drop off some port-a-pots in the heavily homeless populated areas? Kind of hard to process that when you look at the numbers they spend on a problem and the lack of their results to help people in need with basic sanitation.

How’s Cali’s high speed rail project coming? Transcontinental railroad took less than 10yrs without power equipment. Sure it’s not apples to apples, but just sayin’.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

so up until now, California has been dumping their untreated waste into the ocean ??
probably every town,village, city on a lake or river has dumped their TREATED waste water into whater body of water they get their drinking water from for 100-150 years or more...

 

[Tarmy]

This fight has been going on for decades out here. The biggest opposition is fire unions. San Jose and other cities have been implementing tertiary treatment so that the discharge does not screw up the salinity of the Bay. They were putting out too much good clean water and needed to get rid of it. They spent billions on a segregated reclaimed water system running throughout the cities. The fire unions successfully stopped them from blending it into potable water supplies mostly because they drink out of the fire hoses when fighting fire (supposedly).

On a separate note this state has outlawed small ICE engines beginning in January.

Whatever.

 

[D2Cat]

Haven't we been doing this for decades?

Most all cities in the U.S. have a water treatment plant. It is located on the North end of every town. Water is treated from a river, lake, well, etc and provided in water towers for the public's use. At the South end of town all water in sewer systems is treated and dumped in nearby river and it moves on down to the next town/city. The process is repeated until all is at the ocean. You probably been drinking processed urine for a long time!!!!

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I read the new rules and I see it a little differently.

Not discharging into a river or lake or ocean to get washed down the road and diluted (whether treated or not) but rather treat the waste and then re-use into the fresh drinking water systems.

to me the treat / untreat and dilute is far different than treat and then into the fresh water drinking systems.

But simply signs of the time I guess

 

[M5051]

California people are book smart but lack common sense.

 

[fried1765]

Haven't we been doing this for decades?

Most all cities in the U.S. have a water treatment plant. It is located on the North end of every town. Water is treated from a river, lake, well, etc and provided in water towers for the public's use. At the South end of town all water in sewer systems is treated and dumped in nearby river and it moves on down to the next town/city. The process is repeated until all is at the ocean. You probably been drinking processed urine for a long time!!!!

Not ME!
I been drinkin from my 40' sand point well since my life began!

 

[GreensvilleJay]

re: California people are book smart but lack common sense.

'cept they don't read the CORRECT books !!

 

[Tarmy]

California people are book smart but lack common sense.

‘Naw…you give us too much credit.

We have perfected aggressive stupidity.

The worst part of some of this is that we currently are getting Hetch Hetchy water which is spectacular for water quality. There is constant pressure out here to REMOVE existing dams and water storage. They have removed a tremendous amount already.

we are short on water cause we haven’t built any discernible storage since the state had 20M people…now we are at 40M. Sorta explains the problem. We are also short on electric power. Hydro doesn’t count as renewable out here so they want it gone and the storage as well. They are literally destroying two badly needed things. Water storage and power generation.

That, is aggressive stupidity.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

hmm.. short on water and removing dams and storage. Yup, makes ZERO sense. Just like all those concrete 'spillways' I've seen in movies....rains in the mtns and you get rid of it into the ocean, yup makes ZERO sense. Wonder what happens when the aquaduct from the Colorado river gets 'plugged' ? That is a simple for a terrorist to do.
sadly some of the same idiots in charge here. Got rid of a local 100 year old sound dam,killed the neat lil salamanders and such and lost out on a hydroelectric plant that would make $2million in energy, payback was 7 years.

 

[007kubotaguy]

Not everyone in California is crazy.

 

[fried1765]

Not everyone in California is crazy.

Perhaps not....but seemingly way too many are!

 

[Tarmy]

Not everyone in California is crazy.

Speak for yourself buddy!

Oh wait….

 

[The Evil Twin]

Now the faucets in Cali will have Proposition 65 warnings on them.

 

[mikester]

Now the faucets in Cali will have Proposition 65 warnings on them.

I thought they already did considering all the plumbing valves have warnings on them