San Diego Tries to Ease Toilet to Tap Fears

KPBS reports that the statewide water shortage has prompted San Diego to explore new methods of recycling wastewater. City officials hope these methods will increase water supplies while allaying fears many Southern Californians have of drinking "toilet to tap."

San Diego reclamation plants can clean water so it is safe enough to drink. But some water users didn't like the idea of drinking treated wastewater - even if hard data shows that water poses little risk.

The solution: a technique spun as "reservoir augmentation." Instead of sending treated wastewater directly to consumers, San Diego would empty it into San Vicente Reservoir. The water would then mix with other reservoir water and be treated once more - as reservoir water routinely is - when retrieved for use.

There is no scientific reason to pass the treated wastewater through the reservoir - but there is political reason. After all, San Diego and Los Angeles have both struggled with "toilet to tap" backlashes in the last decade.

The article compares the water that will result from the new technique to downstream river water: "The water San Diego draws from the Colorado River contains lightly treated wastewater Las Vegas dumps into Lake Mead. Some say that the water people in New Orleans drink, that comes from the Mississippi River, has already been through about nine sets of human intestines."