The California State of Water Resources Control Board is set to adopt regulations allowing sewage water to be treated and transformed into pure drinking water and delivered directly to people’s taps. The regulations will enable water suppliers to recycle the water flowing in underground drains in an advanced purification process. Researchers believe reusing sewage water will make local communities more resilient to growing climate change because water supply will be more sustainably produced. As a state plagued by droughts, California must adopt this new environmental measure because the negative side effects of droughts, such as public health and safety impacts, are too dangerous.
According to a 2022 California State Auditor, California water systems are rated as “failing to serve nearly one million people.” Current water treatment plants and projects demonstrate that there is a lot of room for these new regulations to improve California’s water situation. For example, Carson — a desert city in Southern California — runs a successful water recycling and purification project through the Metropolitan Water District. The Carson water treatment plant has not only advanced water purification technology, but has helped repurpose sewage water in dry areas and rural parts of California. When the sewage-to-tap water purification process is completed in this new regulation, it can further improve California’s water systems statewide and ensure more Californians have access to safe drinking water.
California residents’ comfort in being willing to drink the highly treated water will depend on its safety and overall health issues. The advanced purification the sewage water will go through will be more than enough to pass as drinking water. The water produced will be high-quality water and safe to consume. Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute, states that “sewage undergoes an extremely sophisticated treatment process, and scientific research has shown that the highly purified water is safe to drink.” With this in mind, California residents will feel safe and protected knowing that the state has undergone thorough research and years of labor to ensure the water is safe to drink.
Furthermore, California residents can feel more comfortable drinking purified water by researching many of the provided articles online that can break down the process of technology producing clean water. The uncertainty of drinking recycled water comes from the term “toilet to tap.” Still, Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute, a water think tank in Oakland, and other water experts say it’s inaccurate to call it this. The process of purification is advanced and goes through multiple steps of treatment. One of the steps that sewage water is processed through is called UV Disinfection. The UV radiation mops up any contaminants or pathogens that may be in the water.
Using sewage water will be essential to addressing California’s susceptibility to droughts. Adopting these new methods does sound unappealing initially, but after many rounds of treatment and UV Disinfection, using sewage water can be a dependable source for California’s water supply.
