Could Toilet Water Be Malibu's New Drinking Water?

Get rid of the “Ewww” factor and California could have a new water source: toilet water.

Yes, toilet water... solids removed, of course.

With California in its fifth consecutive year of drought and the state’s water resources becoming scarcer and scarcer, the fight to find new water sources and conserve what we have is pushing water officials, scientists, chemists, engineers and health professionals to work together to turn the water that flows through our toilets and to our sewage plants into a new elixir--potable drinking water.

And, if the mere thought of consuming what was previously water in a toilet causes you to, um, say, “Ewww,” you might want to adjust your thinking. At least that’s the consensus among those in the know who are hard at work on making viable options reality.

And turning toilet water into wine, er, drinking water has a solid history dating back to 1975, says Ron Wildermuth, communications manager for the West Basin Municipal Water District, an agency already producing such water at its Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility in El Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles.

The 20-year water industry veteran has been drinking the toilet-turned-tap water without incident for nearly 20 years and predicts toilet water purified to meet drinking water standards will be directly ported into the water systems that serve our homes and businesses within 10 to 20 years.

Right now, his agency and others in the water industry are at work getting state regulators to “tell us the water quality that’s needed” to build and operate the plant that will produce the water.

“The direct potable plant is going to need to be very robust and repetitive in its treatment process,” Wildermuth told Patch. “We don’t wany anyone getting sick.”

Not that anyone has, says Wildermuth, but protocols and standards have to be established and met.

He says the new plant will need to be robust enough to withstand any mechanical breakdowns “so if one thing breaks down, that doesn’t affect the water at the end of the process.”

Other musts include an engineered buffer that protects and stores the water; one that can be cleared, cleaned and re-used if necessary.

“We need to be able to hold the water, test it and release it,” he says.

West Basin has been working with two nonprofit organizations, National Water Reuse and California Water Reuse, to spearhead research that takes the present dipping-of-our-toes into creating and using such water into full-on swimming in it (pardon the puns but the hope is for us to use it for drinking and other personal activities).

Other water agencies have joined in the effort, all of them combining to raise some $6 million to put into the work since state and federal governments have not allocated funds. The fundraising is ongoing, he adds.

At West Basin’s Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility, toilet, aka sewage, water goes through a “state-of-the-art water recycling program,” according to the agency. The facility “is the only one in the world that produces five types of ‘designer’ waters to meet our customers’ needs,” said West Basin Board President Donald L. Dear. The agency’s aim is “to increase our recycled water production to help with the drought and provide a reliable, locally-controlled supply of water for coastal Los Angeles County.”

The existing “designer” waters produced by the plant are: irrigation water (tertiary disinfected); cooling tower water (nitrified); low-pressure boiler feed water (single pass reverse osmosis); high-pressure boiler feed water (double pass reverse osmosis); and indirect drinking water (microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide).

Those who tour the plant are given the opportunity to drink the indirect drinking water. Wildermuth says, “Ninety percent or better taste the water out of curiosity and a belief in the purification process we walk them through.”

That purification process involves treating and filtering the water, then adding disinfectants. The water is then purified using microfiltration (in this instance reverse osmosis which is considered “the most advanced filtration process, surpassing even the Earth’s miraculous natural ability,” according to West Basin.

In fiscal year 2013-2014, the El Segundo plant produced 12 billion gallons of recycled water, which would meet the water needs of approximately 74,000 households, says West Basin. The number “also means that approximately 12 billion gallons of drinking water did not need to be imported into Southern California.”

Another notable statistic reports that “every gallon of wastewater that is treated at the facility is repurposed and does not go to the ocean.”

However, Wildermuth says transforming sewage water into drinking water is not a solo solution. “It’s not just one magic pill,” he says, adding that other areas need to be addressed. Those include cleaning up storm water, changing the landscape, conserving, recycling, and desalination.

But he does call sewage water turned into drinking water “absolutely the most sustainable water supply into the future. We’re gonna do it,” he adds.