Drink Up, Bravus!

[Dr. Shane]

No, this is not intended to be an emotionally-charged, inflamatory thread. <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Drought-stricken Australia considers drinking recycled sewage

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Residents of a drought-stricken Australian town will vote this week on whether they're prepared to drink water recycled from sewage -- the first such scheme in the country and one of only a handful in the world.

The controversial proposal has divided the town of Toowoomba in the state of Queensland, which has faced water restrictions for a decade.

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Similar schemes are up and running elsewhere in the world.

Since 1976, authorities in Orange County, California have injected purified wastewater into an undergroud aquifer and since 1978, the Occoquan Reservoir in North Virginia has been topped up with recycled water.

In Singapore, one percent of supply has come from recycled water since 2003. But opponents say the scale of the Toowoomba project, under which 25 percent of the town's supply would be recycled, is unprecedented.

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[Planey]

Queenslanders already drink a beverage called XXXX which in my opiniuon is way more than 25% recycled sewage.

Graeme

[aldona]

Even recycled sewage would be far better than the quality of drinking water that many nations around the world currently "enjoy".

And think back to high school and learning about the "water cycle." Every drop of water we drink has been through thousands of other people's digestive systems already. There is nothing new under the sun. The "recycled sewage" process just short-cuts the cycle.

A lot of new houses are being built in various parts of Australia with "dual reticulation" - that is, two separate water supply pipes. "Virgin" water for drinking and cooking - and recycled sewage or other lower quality water for laundry, flushing toilets and watering gardens.

And even if they switched us over completely to recycled sewage - it would be easy to attach a filter to the kitchen tap and clean the water some more for drinking.

aldona

[Bravus]

Toowoomba is about an hour's drive from here: it's where we went to pick up our cute little puppy!

Aldona's right, of course... and we're in the drought too here in Brisbane, so we may already be very close to making the same move. Things like fountains and water features already proudly proclaim that they are operated on recycled water... and we never let the bath water go down the plughole (in either direction!), but keep it to water the garden.

And besides, water that's been filtered through multiple kidneys must be xtra clean, it just stands to reason. <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Dr. Shane]

I recently rigged our dish water to go out onto the lawn and plan to do the same with the washing machine water too.

[Bravus]

PS It's been raining pretty solidly most of this morning: something like 30 mm (over an inch) according to the rain gauge in my garden, although the weather bureau only says about 10 mm or so. Not sure how much is getting into the dam catchment, which is not right here, but it's certainly giving the garden a good solid watering.