water - is yours recycled

[Kiwi Phil]

We are entering our 7th yr of drought. Our resoviours are below 30% so we have pretty tough restrictions on.<br />There are several City Councils affected = a couple of million people.<br />There has been much procrastinating and wringing of hands over this matter. Leaders, (State and Council), are looking at ways of solving this problem. <br />The obvious is Recycling our waste water , but the good old media always introduce the yuk factor and give coverage to the dogs-tails in our community who refuse to allow water to be recycled back in to our household supply. The result is, all politians are avoiding this as a solution. They are trialing distilling sea water, sinking bores, building new massive storage dams, and the-daddy-of-them-all is constructing a $25m pipline to send recycled water back to the farmers for irrigation.<br />Our Council in their wisdom have employed a woman to visit schools and teach older kids about water conservation.<br />Hayden has taken an interest in this subject. He has written a letter to the Mayor asking why we can't use recycled water, telling her we will take 20,000Litres a week if she puts it in the line.<br />Next week the class if off to the Water Treatment PLant.<br /> He has heard certain cities (London/Singapore/Holland) use recycled. He wants to know what other cities use it. <br />Do any of the cities you live in re-use recycled water, and if so, does it have any adverse effect on you. He wants to raise this matter when on this trip. <br />He says he wants to know opinions of people who use recycled as opposed to just getting facts from the web.<br />Any takers.<br />Many thanks<br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[Boomyal]

Re: water - is yours recycled

To the best of my knowledge no 'gray water' is introduced back into the potable water supply. It is, however, common for treated waste water to be used for watering municipal parks and such.<br /><br />The experts claim that the treated run off water is as good as gold but the public has yet to buy it.<br /><br />Gray Water, of course, is not sewer water.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: water - is yours recycled

That's correct. We have Grey water at home - water from everything except the sewer. That is pumped from a holding tank on to gardens. Works well with little maintanance.<br /><br />The re-cycled water is ALL WATER, Sewer and Grey.<br /><br />We have a Septic Tank for Sewer, and overflow water is spread by gravity to evaporatiuon trenches. Perfect.<br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[roscoe]

Re: water - is yours recycled

I lived in a city who's water system supplied about 1 million people.<br />Sewage and runoff are treated (most of it anyway) and dumped into a large pond.<br /><br />A large pipe is placed out in the pond and water is sucked back up and purified before being pumped back into the drinking supply. <br /><br />I believe there are approximately 15 million people living around this pond. <br />This pond is quite large, covering over 57,000 square kilometers, with a water volume of over 4900 cubic kilometers. So not your typical situation, but it is recycled.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: water - is yours recycled

On my lake, laws are about to be passed that require me to install a grey water recycler and a black water liquifier/purifier on my boat (only organic chemicals are allowed). The units that are available are designed for a single household use, why not for a house?<br /><br />I think (in Aus) the 'yuk factor' is a hurdle that will be difficult to overcome. We have had an abundance of fresh water for eons, but now it's drying up. In a couple of decades, Phil, we'll not have a choice.<br /><br />I still don't understand why they don't pipeline the far north and capture the 'wet' rains.

 

[ZmOz]

Re: water - is yours recycled

Recently my town decided to switch from pristine mountain reservoirs to water pumped from the near by Willamette river. This river is one of the most polluted in the country. Every time we have a big rain storm raw sewage pours in, and they warn everybody to stay out of the river. Even considering all this, the town voted to drink from it. I didn't....<br /><br />I'll just stick to beer and redbull.

 

[RPJS]

Re: water - is yours recycled

Where is all the water going, there are several counties here in the UK that have had drought orders imposed because the resoviours are so low.<br /><br />I watched a TV program a few days agowhich highlighted the problems people are going to have with polluted water, basicly as the water level in the resoviours drops the PPM consentration of pollutants increases.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: water - is yours recycled

RPJS<br />Is your community on recyled water. I thought quite a few English cities were, as although they have a lot of rainfall, it dosn't equal their usage.<br />I also believe Holland is too, because they have difficulty getting rid of the 'waste' because they are so low, so many and such a small area.<br />Can't remember his call sign, but isn't there a Dutchman on this board?<br />Yes the concentration of pollutants does increase, but Hayden tells me they pump it in to a big tank, let it settle, then add something that makes solids float up, which they remove, then pump it to a tank with honeycombs in the bottom and that collects the last of the rubbish. They then pump it through sand filters, then up to the bulb on the tower giving pressure. It is chrorinated in the settling tank, he thinks. Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[technostingray]

Re: water - is yours recycled

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. If you are really thirsty, Phil I will send you a picture.

 

[tommays]

Re: water - is yours recycled

On long island it is not recycled at all sewer systems in some places nothing in others <br /><br />Its a funny place in central suffolk county plenty of water even in long droughts BUT if you go east as the island gets narrrow there are much more problems as the saltwater creeps into the shallow wells <br /><br /><br />The biggest problem is filtering out all the long term things from GAS station leaks heavy Farm pesticide use industral dumping ect<br /><br />tommays

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: water - is yours recycled

All water is recycled, unless God restarted the water mfg. plant.

 

[PW2]

Re: water - is yours recycled

Yes, BB, I have to admit this topic threw me for a loop for a bit!<br /><br />All water is indeed recycled. How did those pristine mountain streams get their water? From the clouds of course, and they got their moisture content from evaporation etc. etc.<br /><br />The question is not the notion of recycling, but the efficacy of the filtering system.

 

[jamesgreen]

Re: water - is yours recycled

The water here in small town TN is recycled. All the sewer water is sent to the treatment plant via pipes. There all the large solid waste is scraped off and what can't be used for fertilizer is hauled to the land fill. The water is then treated with everything from chemicales, lights and fish(little more technical then I can explain). Then it's dumped into a small creek that runs by the plant and eventually makes it back to lake our drinking water comes from. They say the water from the treatment plant is cleaner then the water in the creek.

 

[technostingray]

Re: water - is yours recycled

Originally posted by BoatBuoy:<br /> All water is recycled, unless God restarted the water mfg. plant.

So let's all just enjoy our dinosaur p....