Yuck, Yuck, Yuck!?

​Hello Everyone,
 
The following ‘Pipe’ (“Yuck, Yuck, Yuck”) might be “walking on thin ice” as my Wisconsin Grandpa, Homer, would have said. This Pipe is going to perhaps affect some readers to the extent that they choose (immediately) to read no further. The author fully understands. Excused from class. In this Pipe the author broaches the subject of the use of toilet effluent to supplement drinking water supplies. In an indirect way, it is already being done. Many metropolises across the Country who source their drinking water supply from rivers and lakes are using water that has previously been used in sewage treatment plants of other upstream cities. This is referred to as indirect potable reuse. However, as climate change and drought continue to endanger our water supplies, cities are looking to the day that we directly re-direct treated sewage effluent into piping serving fresh water supply. California has formalized the rules in Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code. This is referred to as direct potable re-use. It’s not a very appetizing thought, is it. Unofficially this process has given birth to the term: the Yuck Factor. As Pete mentioned in an up-stream post “Some Straight Poop: The Cruelest Inconvenience and Power To The Pee-ple” (9/29/2021), me and you excrete (on average) approximately one pound of poop in a 24 hour period. Of this, ¾% is water. In other up-stream posts the author tried to ‘get through’ to the American public: ...pooping, indoors, in private, hygienically, is the biggest stride the last two hundred years has managed to provide the masses. (Two decades of international homelessness is witnessing a challenge to this accomplishment.)
 
As our (ever growing) numbers require more and more fresh (drinking) water supplies, use of drinking water to rid ourselves of our poop makes less and less sense. According to author Dan Lewis (“Now I Know” Newsletter), each of us uses about 24 gallons of drinking water, per day, to flush our poop to sewer or septic. The U.S. Government’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water estimates that the average cost of U.S. water is $2:00 for 1,000 gallons or 4.8 Cents, per person, per day, for the 24 gallons they each use to flush their poop. Until infrastructures have been modernized to offer not only drinking water but also “purple” water for toilet and landscaping, use of drinking water for this chore will remain our Achilles Heel.
 
“Purple” water was given that name by the color of the pipe which carries it. Purple water is reclaimed water from sewage (and water) treatment plants which is not potable (at this stage) but can be used for landscaping and flushing toilets. When city streets have not only freshwater piping underneath them, but also “purple” pipe running alongside, then new and remodeled buildings will begin flushing and irrigating with “purple.”  This will significantly free up the fresh water demands now solely performed by our over stretched, Utility freshwater (only) piping systems.
 
No wonder then “experts” are eyeing the recoverable (and treatable) water content of our poop and the ‘wasted’ drinking (black) water used to transport it. However, the U.S. Government’s EPA (Environmental Protection) Agency)   “...does not require any type of reuse. Generally, States maintain primary regulatory authority (i.e. primacy) in allocating and developing water resources...”  In this interest some U.S. cities have already established standards for treating sewage wastewater to drinking water purity. The technology already exists, and as our climatically adjusted waste infrastructure is further challenged, true direct potable re-use may have to be adopted. More on this ‘as we go’. (The reader, downstream, will also be directed to a phenomenal video demonstrating how this can be accomplished.) *
 
 
In the Beginning
 
When Pete the Plumber was a hard-working metropolitan plumber, he owned a clown suit. Pete would have more than one client of young family having difficulty “potty training”. (Childhood leaves no one unscathed). For these loyal clients, the author donned the suit so as not upset some little bambino’s when he carried his tools (both ways) to his clients’ “potty rooms” and kitchens. Especially the “potty room”.
 
How quickly and easily pooping and “tinkling” in a “potty” is established (all parents know) can differ among siblings. Some children become adults dragging along long-childhood “fear issues”. Many are bodily function and toilet-bathtub-sink (all kinds)-related. Pete had psychiatrist friends who said that adults’ long-carried childhood phobias about plumbers (and toileting) was quite common.
 
Fresh water supplies/concerns have not reached the present level of the general public’s concerns, maybe since Ptolemy was building his cisterns (a long, long time ago). Today’s over-stretched water suppliers (California) have had productive audience with official California water managers, leading to the “wringing out the rag” in support of direct potable reuse.  This will be where water which has carried our feces is ‘treated’ and reintroduced into the potable water stream, where we once again make orange juice with it, boil rice with it, shower with it, and continue sending poop away with it. This potable reuse is already being done in some US. States in an indirect fashion, discussed below. According to writer Dan Lewis (“Now I Know” newsletter), the average American uses 90 gallons of fresh water per day. Of this only about 2 gallons goes toward drinking and cooking. About 24 gallons is used to flush toilets. We use 10 times the water to send our poop away than we used in preparing its progenitor (food) for consumption. More and more smart minds are waking up and realizing this ratio is a losing bet the farther we look ahead.
 
 
With Eyes Open
 
The author can remember a much ‘simpler’ world than most of his readers, he reckons. (That’s bad for him? but good for you.)  This Pipe takes the (willing) reader through a modern argument for direct potable re-use.
 
The fate of our long-in-use metropolitan freshwater distribution systems are looking more challenged by the year. Back in 1996 Pete the Plumber was feeling better when he read the EPA announcement: “As of 1996 over 92 percent of the population supplied by community water systems receives drinking water that meets all health-based standards all of the time.”  Yeah?  What percentage of the population would the citizens of Flint, Michigan, after April 25th, 2014, deem they represented? The Flint tragedy was a “wake up call” to the entire world. Safe, fresh water supplies for large populations might not be so safe (all of the time).
 
In past blogs the author has also donned the euphoric “Little Red Hen” suit: writing about the impending doom of freshwater shortages. Anyone who reads media news has not been able to escape the late attention given to water issues such as supplies of and quality concerns. Climate Change and Global Warming figure into these opinions. Leakage from utilities’ distribution piping is a constant concern. What (now) appears to be more understood, is our take for granted water wasting practices of “before” will not be able to be fact for much longer. Population growth with continued ample supplies of freshwater is not a given, meteorology considered. (Not good for plumbers.) Today, enough experts are voicing their fears that enough fresh water for all will require the adoption of direct potable reuse  (discussed below) but first: Professor Petteri Taalas of the World Meteorological Organization recently was quoted: ”We need to wake up to the looming water crisis.”  This wake-up call will require behavioral changes most urban water subscribers so far have failed so show a willingness to adhere/follow.
 
“Even if we had all the money, we would not be able to convince our customer base to participate at the rates we need them. We can build it, but they don’t necessarily come.”  Those words were spoken by Joe Berg, Municipal Water District of Orange County, CA.
 
 
So Goes California So Goes the Nation?
 
The State of California, because of drought and non-stop development, has recently been forced to adopt a mandatory fine structure for its 400 water purveyors. By 2035 if these utilities have not reduced their delivered water volume by 9% they face a $1,000.00 a day fine (until they are compliant). During droughts the fine can go far as $10,000.00 a day. Many of these suppliers say their customers are already conserving to the point of hardship. But even though one considers the number of toilet flushes, it’s still drinking water that carries the poop, paper and goldfish away. Now it may sound odd but water agencies (under the great ‘pressures’ they find themselves) are working towards not wasting a drop of fresh water, even it formerly escorted our poop outta the house.
 
In other words, in California the water used in our toilets (“black”) and sinks, showers, tubs, and laundry (gray) carry’s our poop (and other wastes) to the municipal treatment plant, might, soon, be “green lighted” to be put back into our ‘potable’ (drinking water) piping (after thorough processing). Does the thought of that (for those not ‘on’ septic) ring anyone’s Yuck Bell?  If it does, the author hopes to allay your fears/suspicions. For the ‘firmer’ stomached, Pete hopes the read proves a logically pleasing one. But regardless the author is pleased that the topic is no longer ignored in the Press media.
 
About ten years ago Pete’s plumbing mentor Larry Weingarten invited Pete to tour an experimental home on the Central Coast of California. This home did not require a “full time” Utility water supply. Why? Because it reused all of its wastewater (including the 75% in poop). This experimental home consumed its own black water. The author recalls all of the tanks, pumps, valves, gauges, wire and cable under that home. (It reminded him of submarines.)  The experiment of this experimental home was the ability to not waste even the water dealing with (and in) poop. To many (or most?) readers this challenge might seem: “Over the top”?  Recall Professor Taalas. The World Meteorological Organization reminds us that only 0.5% of water on our planet is useable and available fresh water. And it is estimated that by 2050 water demands will be 20 to 30 times what they are at present. (Pete’s glad he won’t be around for the suffering.)
 
Unfortunately, the experimental home was unable to pass the County’s stringent requirements for direct potable reuse of wastewater to potable water supply. New regulations for direct potable reuse require the removal of 99.999 % of diarrhea-causing viruses and other parasites. Other requirements include the removal of anti-seizure drugs, pain relievers, anti-depressants, and numerous other dangerous compounds.
 
The ‘Direct’ness of It
 
Indirect reuse as mentioned upstream is a process where treated wastewater is first injected into a groundwater aquifer, lake, or river and then re-treated before it is distributed for public use. A Water Reuse article in watereuse.org defines:  In a 2017 EPA Potable Reuse Compendium “Direct reuse refers to those situations where treatment is followed by storage and use in the environmental buffer.”  The buffer to consist of municipal irrigation, designed wetlands and other environmental uses. However, some experts, by the wordage of California’s new rules, claim reclaimed poop and gray water piping can be directly connected drinking water piping, overriding EPA’s definition. So far, this ‘black water’ is not being “re-piped” directly to our home freshwater piping, after treatment (to the author’s knowledge). It’s going to be contentious progress. But, the technology does exist. *(This ingenious machine turns feces into drinking water | Bill Gates). The problem is scaling up the process to serve everyone. There are over 400 urban retail water suppliers which serve 95% of Californians drinking water requirements. The investment required to treat black water to the point of direct inclusion in their potable fare is presently too unpalatable. Someday? Maybe. According to Erin Stone of LAist (Southern California Public Radio), “…75% of treated wastewater is returned to the ocean.”  Whoa! (More than the author would have wagered).
 
California, though, will not be the first state to operate a direct re-use water treatment plant. Texas was. It built the first operational facility in 2013. This was treated sewage water being introduced to waters which several upstream municipalities drew their freshwater. At present the new California regulations are allowing for reintroduction of wastewater treated to new potable reuse standards, into the immediate upstream intake of a potable water treatment plant. So far black water is not being “re-piped” directly to our homes freshwater piping, after treatment. So far…
 
 
The Day Will Come
 
Water usage in the author’s family (from his early childhood until the present) has always been a “don’t waste it” attitude. In the ‘early days’ the sink faucets always turned on when needed. The tub faucets always ran when wanted. The toilet always flushed. (O.K. though if one had to let the the cold (drinking) water run (waiting for it to get hot), preparing for a tub bath or shower, to go down the drain until the ‘right’ temp showed up.) That behavior would/does-not-fly today. Residential water supply costs for most of us have been so economical that residents rarely gave it a second thought. That way of life no longer is a viable one. Mother Nature has been scolding us already, and for some time. Whatever the freshwater situation is for those born thirty/forty years from now, yours truly will be more than content with his present, temporary reality. (The author never was a gambler.)
 
Before we leave this Yuck behind, the author recommends that all of us remain cognizant of our personal water use footprint (average of 24 gallons for pooping, outta the 90 gallons per person, daily use). Will your ‘next generation’ family look back at your now 90 gallon daily average usage, as exorbitant? Could be a chance.
 
Until Next Time,
 
Don’t take any wooden Nickels.