Whoever claimed Californians were full of crap?
Officials in the Golden State this week approved new “toilet-to-tap” regulations, allowing water agencies to take wastewater from homes, recycle it, and pump it back to households in an effort to boost the state’s dwindling water supply.
“It will truly be the highest quality water delivered in the state when it’s done,” said Darrin Polhemus, director of the Division of Drinking Water and the State Water Resources Control Board.
Despite some trepidation from consumers, officials have guaranteed the scheme is safe due to the wastewater undergoing three rigorous stages of treatment.
The water is treated for pathogens and viruses in a way officials say is so thorough, minerals have to be added back to improve the taste.
If one fails, there’s still two remaining in its place as backups to make sure nothing goes untreated,” Polhemus said.
California is notoroiusly drought-prone and depends on water from other states via the Colorado River.
In Polk County is hoping to get ahead with a pilot project in Lakeland that could turn wastewater into drinking water. Testing at the new $2.5 million facility began a couple of months ago.
“It’s been under construction for about a year and it’s a process that will allow us to test what it would take to take reclaimed water up to the standards regulators are going to be happy with,” said Tamara Richardson, Polk County’s utilities director.
The facility takes wastewater through a six step process that includes carbon filtration and U-V disinfection. It’s all designed to scrub reclaimed water of harmful chemicals, bacteria, hormones and even viruses to make it safe enough to drink.
California is the second state to allow the process, following Colorado.
California has been using recycled water for decades on vegetable and fruit crops and for watering lawns, but this would be the first time the technology would be used directly for drinking water.
If there’s isn’t enough water to supply the demand of new communities, why are construction permits given to new developments and provided to large companies or are lobbyists within the board getting some cash on their hands, the agricultural sector has been destroyed and abandoned due to the selfishness of this board to bring new housing projects to Polk County against the lack of precious resources like water, etc. If there isn’t agriculture, there won’t be No food, we would have to be dependent upon other countries to put food on the table, there’s going to be a lot of concrete, I hope you could feed your family with concrete, cause the agriculture it’s been destroyed, due to the board selfish and greedy politicians interest.
I eat crap every day at work so what”s the difference If I drank crap at home too ????
Don
Way back in the day, there were regulations in Florida that limited the number of people allowed to reside in a given area. There was also some semblance of protections on natural areas. North Kathleen has seen exponential growth in housing and business in the last 3 years to the point where the water table has been depleted or rerouted, and the wildlife killed or pushed off. It is obvious that money has changed hands for some of these housing projects-even the old ones back in the day. How do you build on a watershed? The water recycling process is a sound one as long as there are no failures in the system. That being said, I’ve had reverse osmosis water and “recycled” reclaim water, the later smelling exactly like the reclaim water it came from and tasting pretty horrible. I’d also like to see glass come back for products and recycling purposes, especially since Polk is giving up on the recycling program. I am not sure how a program we pay for, and the companies pay the county for, turns into an unprofitable or worthless venture. Perhaps poor planning and escalating bonuses.