felixthecat
June 7th, 2008, 04:28 PM
Green fuel from a brown source
Experiment powers cars off hydrogen from sewage: 'This is not something we're at risk of running out of'
Alan Ohnsman, Bloomberg News
Published: 2:31 am
Some California drivers may tool around in poop-powered cars as early as next year.
More here:
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourna...7-cb520ac2ca69
Or this:
On tap in space: Urine will not go to waste
Updated 5/15/2008 6:41 AM
Excerpt -
...
Recycling wastewater also is gaining in popularity on Earth. A dozen or so U.S. communities have plants that cleanse sewage so it can be added to aquifers that supply drinking water. The biggest plant, which can serve 500,000 people, opened this year in Orange County, Calif. Public disgust has squelched such systems in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Edeen admits the recycled water poses a “psychological issue to get past” but says that, after tasting it “many, many times,” she can't tell it apart from any other water.
“It's not urine anymore,” she says. “It's water.”
“I very much understand (public) squeamishness,” Bagdigian says. But, he adds, he doesn't have to contend with it, because “you're talking about people who've already come to grips with putting themselves on a rocket.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science...acewater_N.htm
BTW, it later turned out that AFTER the recylced urine was tested it was loaded with antidepressants ... .
Sewer to spigot: More communities drinking recycled wastewater
By ANJALI ATHAVALEY, The Wall Street Journal
Story Created: May 15, 2008 at 3:27 PM EDT
Story Updated: May 15, 2008 at 3:27 PM EDT
A growing number of cities and counties grappling with water shortages are turning to a solution that may be tough for some homeowners to stomach: purifying wastewater so that residents can drink it.
In an effort to replenish its groundwater supply, Los Angeles is slated to announce Thursday a plan that will recycle 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019. In San Diego, the city council voted in favor of a pilot project that would pump recycled sewage water into a drinking-water reservoir, despite a veto from the mayor over the system’s cost. Miami-Dade County, Fla., is planning a system that would pump 23 million gallons a day of purified wastewater into the ground; the water will eventually travel to a supply well and be reclaimed for drinking use.
...
But cities considering large-scale systems that recycle wastewater to drinking standards may face an uphill battle. Such initiatives — dubbed “toilet to tap” proposals by critics — have encountered resistance in the past as a result of cost and the overall yuck factor. In 2001, Los Angeles scrapped a $55 million wastewater-recycling project that would have provided the equivalent of the annual water needs of 200,000 city residents. A similar proposal in San Diego was derailed in the late 1990s amid an outcry that poor neighborhoods would be forced to use the wastewater from rich neighborhoods.
The cost of such projects may also be tough for residents to swallow. In Miami-Dade County, the estimated price tag on a new wastewater-recycling system is $350 million. It is unclear how this will affect the water bills of residents, though local officials expect rates to rise.
The concept of recycling wastewater to meet drinking-water standards isn’t new. A handful of cities in the U.S. and abroad have done it on smaller scales and sometimes with older technology. In most cases, the water is disinfected and pumped into an aquifer or reservoir where it remains for a period of time before being distributed to the public through drinking-water wells — a concept known as indirect potable reuse.
...
Recent reports of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals found in drinking water are spurring increased scrutiny of public drinking water supply — a factor that could affect public opinion of new wastewater-recycling plans. “Many of the pharmaceutical compounds taken nowadays by adults are excreted unchanged in urine, says Jack Skinner, an internal-medicine specialist in Newport Beach, Calif., who serves on a state committee that is evaluating drinking-water standards. “They show up in the wastewater just because of the sheer volume of people taking pharmaceutical compounds now.” He adds that endocrine disrupters — a series of compounds found in birth-control pills and plastics — have caused birth defects in wildlife and are of particular concern to the public.
More here:
http://www.wsbt.com/news/health/18979314.html
Coming to a city near you? :thinking
Beam me up soon!!!! Yuck!
Would I trust them to give me pure drinking water?
No way!
Experiment powers cars off hydrogen from sewage: 'This is not something we're at risk of running out of'
Alan Ohnsman, Bloomberg News
Published: 2:31 am
Some California drivers may tool around in poop-powered cars as early as next year.
More here:
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourna...7-cb520ac2ca69
Or this:
On tap in space: Urine will not go to waste
Updated 5/15/2008 6:41 AM
Excerpt -
...
Recycling wastewater also is gaining in popularity on Earth. A dozen or so U.S. communities have plants that cleanse sewage so it can be added to aquifers that supply drinking water. The biggest plant, which can serve 500,000 people, opened this year in Orange County, Calif. Public disgust has squelched such systems in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Edeen admits the recycled water poses a “psychological issue to get past” but says that, after tasting it “many, many times,” she can't tell it apart from any other water.
“It's not urine anymore,” she says. “It's water.”
“I very much understand (public) squeamishness,” Bagdigian says. But, he adds, he doesn't have to contend with it, because “you're talking about people who've already come to grips with putting themselves on a rocket.”
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science...acewater_N.htm
BTW, it later turned out that AFTER the recylced urine was tested it was loaded with antidepressants ... .
Sewer to spigot: More communities drinking recycled wastewater
By ANJALI ATHAVALEY, The Wall Street Journal
Story Created: May 15, 2008 at 3:27 PM EDT
Story Updated: May 15, 2008 at 3:27 PM EDT
A growing number of cities and counties grappling with water shortages are turning to a solution that may be tough for some homeowners to stomach: purifying wastewater so that residents can drink it.
In an effort to replenish its groundwater supply, Los Angeles is slated to announce Thursday a plan that will recycle 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019. In San Diego, the city council voted in favor of a pilot project that would pump recycled sewage water into a drinking-water reservoir, despite a veto from the mayor over the system’s cost. Miami-Dade County, Fla., is planning a system that would pump 23 million gallons a day of purified wastewater into the ground; the water will eventually travel to a supply well and be reclaimed for drinking use.
...
But cities considering large-scale systems that recycle wastewater to drinking standards may face an uphill battle. Such initiatives — dubbed “toilet to tap” proposals by critics — have encountered resistance in the past as a result of cost and the overall yuck factor. In 2001, Los Angeles scrapped a $55 million wastewater-recycling project that would have provided the equivalent of the annual water needs of 200,000 city residents. A similar proposal in San Diego was derailed in the late 1990s amid an outcry that poor neighborhoods would be forced to use the wastewater from rich neighborhoods.
The cost of such projects may also be tough for residents to swallow. In Miami-Dade County, the estimated price tag on a new wastewater-recycling system is $350 million. It is unclear how this will affect the water bills of residents, though local officials expect rates to rise.
The concept of recycling wastewater to meet drinking-water standards isn’t new. A handful of cities in the U.S. and abroad have done it on smaller scales and sometimes with older technology. In most cases, the water is disinfected and pumped into an aquifer or reservoir where it remains for a period of time before being distributed to the public through drinking-water wells — a concept known as indirect potable reuse.
...
Recent reports of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals found in drinking water are spurring increased scrutiny of public drinking water supply — a factor that could affect public opinion of new wastewater-recycling plans. “Many of the pharmaceutical compounds taken nowadays by adults are excreted unchanged in urine, says Jack Skinner, an internal-medicine specialist in Newport Beach, Calif., who serves on a state committee that is evaluating drinking-water standards. “They show up in the wastewater just because of the sheer volume of people taking pharmaceutical compounds now.” He adds that endocrine disrupters — a series of compounds found in birth-control pills and plastics — have caused birth defects in wildlife and are of particular concern to the public.
More here:
http://www.wsbt.com/news/health/18979314.html
Coming to a city near you? :thinking
Beam me up soon!!!! Yuck!
Would I trust them to give me pure drinking water?
No way!