Posted By Bill Bangert on 12/8/2009 at 10:45:18 AM
I ahve had many a published letter regarding the potential for disaster with the recycled program in our country. Most recently the city of San Diego and its permitting process that allows anyone to hook up a recycled system at their home.
Now we see a municipality in Australia that confirms they made a mistake and pumped thousands of gallons of recycled water into the taps of homes with children.
I have asked who will be accountable when mistakes such as these surface in our country? The answer is no one will be held accountable as in Australia a simple "we apologize for our error in judgement, thank you for letting us know, we hope no one gets too sick.
Meanwhile our city parks and playgrounds continue to be watered with recycled unsanitized water, our oceans, lakes and streams continue to get runoff from recycled systems put together by Joe homeowner. With no accountability from the powers to be that allow it in the firsyt place.
Do we really need to wait for a disaster to happen?
Regarding the recycled water systems in San Diego, what water is being recycled?
I believe the most common recycled water systems in residential homes are:
1) Greywater systems
2) Rain water collection (not really "recycled")
Greywater is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing. I am only aware of the grey water being used for irrigation (watering plants).
Sprinkler systems require a "check" to prevent water in the irrigation plumbing from entering the potable water supply. If the grey water used for irrigation, I see no problems if the potable water has sufficiently protected from contaminating the potable water.
Shouldn't the permitting process verify this?
The recycled water used to irrigate city parks and playground goes through a very extensive treatment process. You might want to take a tour of Orange County Sanitation Districts to see what happens to the wastewater. Chlorination or Cloramine or sometimes ozone treatment sanitizes the treated wastewater at the end of this extensive treatment.
Some of the wastewater is purified by reverse osmosis (RO) which is injected into the ground to prevent saltwater incursion into the underground aquifer.
By the way, the recycled water in Orange County is also used for industrial uses like dying fabrics or metal finishing and also used in NEW commercial buildings for flushing toilet and urinals (in a completely separated plumbing system using "purple" pipes to easily distinguish it from the potable water)
I appreciate your concern for the health and safety of our citizens. However, I believe that the grey water program is a good thing in that millions of gallons of potable water is not used for irrigation purposes. This to me is a wasteful concept.
Frankly, my concerns run more towards the pollution of virtually every lake, stream, and rivers in this country. Here in Florida there are few, if any, non-polluted bodies of water existant. In many areas one cannot eat more than a fish a week due to mercury. Our once pristine springs are full of nitrates and nitrites. Acid rain is a huge problem. We even have a river which is classified as 'industrial' which has been given a permit to dump millions of gallons of chlorinated water directly from the pulp mill into the Gulf.
This clearly is a major problem.
There is a huge fight, on going, as to whom actually decides which levels of contaminents will be allowed in our public waters. We inject sewage into the ground and practice so many other acts of intentional pollution because many industry leaders claim it will be too expensive to do otherwise.
There are so many examples of intentional pollution, unintentional sewage spills, and unreported disasters that virtually all drinking water is at risk in this fragile ecosystem.
If it were me, I would worry a lot less about greywater, and a lot more about the destruction of our environment.
Every month in Water Technology Magazine, "Professor POU/POE" answers reader questions about point-of-use/point-of-entry water treatment.
If you have a question for the Professor (also known as David Bauman, Technical Editor), send an e-mail to rdipaolo@ntpmedia.com and we'll pass it along. With your question, please indicate your general location (region, state, province, etc.). Not all questions will be chosen for publication.
Write for WT
Water Technology welcomes and encourages editorial contributions from the world of residential water conditioning, bottled water delivery, and treatment for commercial or light industrial applications.
To place a classified ad online, e-mail your ad text to pharrington@ntpmedia.com or call Pat Harrington at 518-640-9173.
Bookstore
WaterTechBooks.com is an online bookseller for the water treatment industry. It has dozens of titles in stock, in a variety of categories. A simple e-commerce platform allows you to complete your transaction online and have your books shipped directly to your home or business.
Every month in 
