What's your opinion about drinking treated waste water?

Answer 1

I actually work in an environmental water testing laboratory. I was part of a team that did the analytical chemistry work for a Reverse Osmosis (RO) pilot project for about 18 months. Our findings indicated that RO treated waste water was free of nutrients (food for bacteria), byproducts of disinfection, microbiological organisms and trace metals. The RO water data was in fact very similar to drinking water data.

What we did not look for in the RO treated water was trace hormones and pharmaceuticals. These analytes are certainly more of an issue with treated waste water than drinking water that comes from an aquifer because these things are excreted by humans and will therefore be found in waste water.

When considering the conventional means of testing water - I feel that consuming treated waste water would be safe. However, taking into account that the water is not tested for the hormones and pharmaceuticals, it may be better to wait until it is possible to quantify these results.

All other considerations aside, it just sounds gross. However, it is very expensive to desalinate sea water and there is only so much surface water to go around. We may have to suck it up, literally.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

We know how to remove or eradicate 99.999% of the potentially harmful micro-organisms; we know how to remove solids and infiltrates; we know how to remove inorganic chemicals and compounds.

I've seen a waterworks supervisor drink a glass of reclaimed water to demonstrate to tour groups his confidence in the reclamation process used by the facility in the South Rim Park of the Grand Canyon National Park, US. They use the reclaimed water in septic lines (flush toilets and urinals) and to irrigate landscapes within the park.

I have one nagging doubt, namely our inability to cope with the thousands upon thousands of organic compounds we've released into our environment and which we don't really know how to effectively treat; and furthermore, we don't have a clue as to how they interact to form still more new organic compounds.

That is a large nagging doubt, yet consider this -- those same compounds are likely to be found in the sources of your drinking water now (unless your water source is an aquifer with a very long recharge cycle).

Answer 3

There's really nothing wrong with that. I'm doing it for years already. It's continuously and thoroughly tested all the time, it tastes just as fresh and good as any water. If there could be something wrong with this water, it wouldn't have been used in so many (very modern and western) countries around the globe.

Answer 4

I comes down to one thing its water. It is monitored for impurities before released into the environment to water system. Water in its natural state, like in the ground where it comes from, actually tends to have higher impurities then treated water before its chemicals are added.

Rain water is pure...so you might think. A portion of it could have evaporated off of a sewage pond or a nuclear power plant.

Answer 5

Its clean who cares?? Soon that will be all there is to offer. Not to mention alot of the water you buy in bottles are just that treated water not pure water..

Answer 6

I won't drink it I will leave the state first
because i cant get past the grossness of it all & the worst part is when i realize some women abort very young babies down the loo & i dont want to drink...............

Answer 7

Any water you drink today was once drank (or is it drunk) by another person at one time. Try not to think about it.

Answer 8

The water is clean and it's way better than drinking the wastewater itself, isn't it?

Answer 9

No thanks.
Feminization of aquatic life downstream from sewage treatment plant outflows strongly suggests that our sewage treatment facilities are not adequately removing some hormones and pharmaceuticals.

Double-distill mine, please.

Answer 10

If clean properly it's fine.