California sewage water will become drinking water: Here’s how

Turning sewage into drinking water

CA state officials just approved a plan that is changing the course of tap water.

LOS ANGELES - Millions of Californians could soon be drinking wastewater.

California regulators on Tuesday approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses.

Under the new rules, water agencies would be allowed - not required - to take wastewater, treat it, and then put it right back into the drinking water system.

California would be just the second state to allow this, following Colorado.

California to turn sewage into drinking water

Millions of Californians could soon be drinking sewage water.

California has been using recycled wastewater for decades. The Ontario Reign minor league hockey team has used it to make ice for its rink in Southern California. Soda Springs Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe has used it to make snow. And farmers in the Central Valley, where much of the nation’s vegetables, fruits and nuts are grown, use it to water their crops.

But it hasn’t been used directly for drinking water. Orange County operates a large water purification system that recycles wastewater and then uses it to refill underground aquifers. The water mingles with the groundwater for months before being pumped up and used for drinking water again.

The new rules require the wastewater be treated for all pathogens and viruses, even if the pathogens and viruses aren’t in the wastewater. That’s different from regular water treatment rules, which only require treatment for known pathogens, said Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the division of drinking water for the California Water Resources Control Board.

In fact, the treatment is so stringent it removes all the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good — meaning they have to be added back at the end of the process.

Because it is expensive and time-consuming to build such treatment facilities, it will be an option for bigger, well-funded cities initially, including San Diego, where city officials have a plan to build a water recycling program that they say would account for nearly half of the city’s water by 2035.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.