Time of Waste - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 94

navy captain who had served as the public relations officer for General Norman Schwar-
zkopf during the first Persian Gulf War. After two years of handing out free pizza and
talking to everyone from local garden clubs to leading politicians, OCWD had worn
down virtually all opposition. With backing from city councils and state and federal
politicians, Orange County's GWRS was green-lit in 2001, winning $92 million in local,
state, and federal grants.
The timing was fortuitous. Since the mid-1960s, the Metropolitan Water District (the
Met), the regional water wholesaler, had supplied Orange County with sixty-five thou-
sand acre-feet of water a year. But in 2007, water imports from the overstretched Co-
lorado River and Sacramento Delta were severely restricted, and the Met was forced
to drastically reduce the amount of water it could guarantee for delivery. Had Orange
County not built the GWRS, which opened in 2008, it would have been left high and
dry. (The Met has awarded GWRS an $85 million operational subsidy for reducing its
dependence on imported water.)
The Groundwater Replenishment System is a collection of low-slung modernistic
buildings, with tan concrete walls, big white holding tanks, and gray pipes. It uses a
multistaged “treatment train” to produce “ultra-pure” water. First, sewage is processed
by the county's treatment plant, next door. (The residue left over from processing
sewage is flushed out to sea, where it is diluted.) Then the treated wastewater passes
into the GWRS, where microfiltration removes any bacteria, protozoans, and suspen-
ded solids; reverse osmosis removes viruses, dissolved minerals, and pharmaceuticals;
any remaining microscopic organic compounds are removed by oxidation, which disin-
fects the water. Just about everything in the water is removed. Indeed, the GWRS's water
is so pure that minerals must be added back into it lest the treated water leach calcium
out of the cement mortar that lines water pipes, weakening them.
The GWRS's water is cleaner than natural water supplies. Even so, it is against state
regulations to send treated wastewater directly into people's taps (known as direct pot-
able reuse). Why? There are technical reasons, but essentially, Markus sighed, because
“the public is simply not ready yet.”
If current social and environmental trends continue, recycled sewage will un-
doubtedly be flowing directly into people's taps within a few years—in Orange County,
at least, if not in San Diego. “I believe it will become a reality in the not-too-distant fu-
ture. Maybe ten years from now,” Markus predicted in 2009. “We hardly have enough
water to keep up with the growth we have already. We're severely challenged, and with
all the new problems it's only going to get worse.”
Markus was talking about Orange County, but his words hold true for every commu-
nity. What might be called the Age of Easy Water—an era of plentiful, reliable supplies
of clean water, accessible to population centers—is drawing to a close. The drama be-