Australia considers drinking recycled sewage

There'a a sying in many town ancities (e.g. London) that their water has been drunk five times before it arrived at the tap again :wink:

(As far as I know e.g. the Mississippi River, too, serves as both the destination of sewage treatment and the source of potable water.)

Wikipedia: Reclaimed water

using recycled water is really not such a new idea .
iguess it's not widely aadvertised yet , but it certainly is being done .

"...Although most water recycling projects have been developed to meet nonpotable water demands, a number of projects use recycled water indirectly1 for potable purposes. These projects include recharging ground water aquifers and augmenting surface water reservoirs with recycled water. In ground water recharge projects, recycled water can be spread or injected into ground water aquifers to augment ground water supplies, and to prevent salt water intrusion in coastal areas. For example, since 1976, the Water Factory 21 Direct Injection Project, located in Orange County, California, has been injecting highly treated recycled water into the aquifer to prevent salt water intrusion, while augmenting the potable ground water supply..."

from :
...EPA - WATER RECYCLING...

This is the oldest and driest continent. And we're in drought. Again. Have been for years.

While we've had an uncommon amount of rain in Sydney recently - we still have water restrictions, because the rainfall is very localised, i.e., none is falling in the catchment areas, which are in from the coast. The dams are at their lowest levels for years. The rainfall pattern appears to be changing - overall there's just not as much rain!

Politicians have finally grasped vaguely that this is a problem - and are flying all sorts of ideas to find one acceptable to the (unwashed ) masses.

Recycled water is raising it's head big time, because the pollies' favoured alternative - huge desalination plants along the coast, is very unpopular, a major eyesore, and bloody expensive.

There are a number of small scale water recycling trials - and more in the pipeline - but no sensible overall plan as yet.

What did we expect - they're politicians - short sighted, narrow minded and up themselves!

In addition our water infrastructure is notoriously undermaintained. I think something like 40% of Sydney's water leaks out of pipes before it gets to taps.

I see the future as involving to water systems - drinking/cooking water, and grey water.

The Toowoomba fuss is a bit odd. You don't have to be much of a scientist to know that even rainwater has been through the bellies and out the crappers of numerous beasties before it got to you. It's just 'the thought'.

What about Beatties water pipeline from Burdekin. We live in the tropics, our dam is full and we're still on level 2 water restrictions, thank bejeebus someone at Cairnswater has half a brain. Not 12 months ago we were down to 40%. Weather patterns are changing, and the population is exploding, particularly in QLD, and testing the existing infrastructure.

I'm firmly in the camp of using water more wisely, desalination and anti dam.

Michigan can help, we have lots of fresh water. But some of the streams are brownish red. I know some of you hold brown water suspect.

lots of water in lake ontario .
every now and then the sewage pumping station can't handle the load (after heavy rain) and discharges the untreated sewage into lake ontario.
well , we live upstream from the discharge site ; why should we worry - just hope nobody is doing it upstraem from our intake .
hbg

Margo,
I've often wondered why countries haven't used desalination plants. Limited water to drink, but an ocean of water on our shores...does anyone have any experience with the desalination plants?

I have just read several articles which mentioned the DEAD ZONE increases; surprisingly, to me, are the increases along the Washington and Oregon (USA) shores. To add to that, China is estimated to pass up the US pollution level in 15 years...actually, China is working to correct the situation; the irony is that their numbers are so huge that their efforts may always be behind.

OOPS...got carried away...no pun intended <grin>

israel seems to have one of the largest water desalination plants in the world . from what i understand , it is still more costly to produce water by desalination than other methods .
pour local university (queen's university/kingston) is studying how to greatly reduce the use of water around the world .
the worst mis-use of water - a/t to their study - is the good , old flush-toilet . particularly when one considers that we use drinking-quality water for flushing (!) , it seems to make sense to come up with a different 'disposal' method .
preliminary studies have shown that a 'dry' system would not only reduce potable water use greatly but also would also allow methane gas production to become feasible locally .
hbg

...ISRAEL - WATER DESALINATION...

Oh, reading the topic title, I thought for a minute that Swan Lager was going nationwide out there.

I have a strong suspicion they've tried this before...

You don't like 'black duck', Lord?

Swan Soup in Saudi Arabia!

hamburger,
The article was informative...actually, it was just what I needed. Thanks