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| Recycling the idea of reusing water By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 4:52 PM PST Years ago, Paul Vossen, a University of California Extension Service agriculture adviser, guided Santa Rosa residents on a visit to his special research farm. Touring the lines of crops, Vossen would show his visitors the irrigation system feeding the thousands of gallons of water that fueled the crops — delicious broccoli, cauliflower and tomatoes. “We gave them vegetables to eat fresh,” Vossen said. “They’d grab the food and munch it right down.” Vossen said almost no one minded when they were told that those crops were grown using treated sewage — the same “dirty” water flushed down countless toilets, sinks, drains and gutters throughout California. “Our conclusion at the end of our survey was that 95 percent of people have no problem with using recycled water,” Vossen said. “There was only one really concerned person out of all the people we interviewed — ‘Oh my gosh!’ he said. ‘You can’t use this water! You’ll poison everybody!’” But Vossen says that perspectives have really changed for the better throughout California when it comes to re-using wastewater, instead of dumping it out into the sea or into the ground. More people value the environmental benefits of conserving water, he says, than fear re-using wastewater. Recycled water on the Coastside is still years off. Even if everything goes according to plan, construction of a treatment facility won’t likely start until 2012. But by working to reclaim the wastewater that goes down the drain, the Coastside would be joining a larger international movement to expand the haphazard water supply. There’s never been so much momentum for water reclamation projects throughout the United States, says Zachary Dorsey, communications manager for WateReuse, a national recycled water advocacy group. With the strictest and most elaborate water quality guidelines in the country, California is the “gold standard” in the world for re-using and conserving water, Dorsey says. Even so, in the middle of a drought, the California water supply is heading into uncertain times. Many large water providers, such as the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, are limiting the amount of water they draw off the state’s lakes and rivers in the coming years, and they are encouraging their member districts to find local water conservation projects to mitigate the effects. The potential benefits of recycled water are fairly obvious, says Suzanne Gautier, spokeswoman for the SFPUC. “It’s a pretty constant supply source; it’s not impacted by climate change or droughts; it’s locally produced, operated and governed; and it’s not subject to water rights and other considerations,” Gautier said. “And environmentally, it’s helpful on a lot of levels.” For the Coastside, recycling wastewater would solve two problems: a dwindling water supply and an excess of sewer water, which has occasionally leaked out in the past, contaminating the soil and ocean. Planning for Coastside water recycling is still at a very preliminary stage, says Tanya Yurovsky, an engineering consultant for the project. Yurovsky says that she is trying to take into consideration the rapid development of new and improved technology for wastewater recycling and the changing laws regulating it from the state. “We want to be at the forefront, but the industry is developing,” she said. “A lot of companies are coming into this market, making a lot of previously unaffordable technology, more cost-effective.” Dorsey says that, for communities like the Coastside that are introduced to a water reclamation project for the first time, the biggest barrier can be public perception. “There’s an inherent ‘yuck’ factor with recycled water,” Dorsey said, “People are concerned about the history of the water rather than the quality.” Dorsey says that people often assume that all wastewater is filthy while other water supplies are clean. He cites Los Angeles as an example, pointing out that few people are aware that more than 280 wastewater plants are dumping into the Colorado River before it reaches the city. “Some refer to it as the ‘mile of amnesia,’” he said. “But all indications are that recycled water will continue to grow and expand.” |