Time of Waste - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 91

ation—has lessened the hydrostatic pressure underground. Ocean water has seeped as
far as five miles inland to fill the void, and the salt water has contaminated freshwater
supplies.
Two-thirds of the county still relies heavily on groundwater, but southern Orange
County must import 90 percent of its drinking water from Northern California's Sac-
ramento Delta, or from the Colorado River, to the east. Both sources are hundreds of
miles away and are already overused; importing their waters is expensive and energy-
intensive.
In 1976, Orange County opened Water Factory 21 in Fountain Valley, the first treat-
ment plant to use reverse osmosis to purify household wastewater to drinking-water
standards. But it wasn't used for drinking. It processed recycled sewer water into highly
treated water that was injected into wells along the coast, forming a hydrologic barrier
against saltwater intrusion.
In other places, recycled water has been used to make ice for skating rinks, or artifi-
cial snow, or to water the greens at golf courses such as Pebble Beach, home to the US
Open. But that was just the beginning. For years, recycling advocates have pushed to
use highly treated sewage (they prefer the term wastewater) as a new drinking supply.
The technology is proven and is being used in a limited way. It has been highly con-
troversial but may also be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the nation. The
question is, if current trends continue, will we have a choice?
FROM THE TOILET TO THE TAP
How exactly do we turn human waste into drinking water? Praised as “showers to
flowers” technology by its supporters, and derided as “toilet to tap” by its opponents,
this transmutation process has set off a furor in California while slowly gaining accept-
ance elsewhere.
In El Paso, Texas, recycled water supplies 40 percent of the city's tap water. In Fairfax,
Virginia, recycled water provides 5 percent of the city's drinking supplies. Counties in
Florida and Georgia are evaluating the idea. In other parts of the world, the showers-
to-flowers experiment is well under way. Windhoek, Namibia, for instance, is one of the
driest places on earth and is the only major city to rely solely on treated waste-water for
its drinking supply. Singapore uses ultrapurified sewage water to supply its high-tech
industry. Arid nations such as India have already invested in advanced water treatment
systems, while Israel and Australia are studying the idea closely.
By the mid-1990s, the Orange County Water District was facing continued problems
with saltwater intrusion, increasing demand for its treated wastewater. County planners