And it's all the fault of high-end technology, apparently

Oct 23, 2014 09:57 GMT  ·  By
A processing center at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center
   A processing center at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center

There are a lot of ugly truths that the media and man in general try not to dwell on too much, but sometimes it's just hard to sweep things aside, and we dare say the case of recycled sewage water is one of them.

Currently, waste water doesn't make it back to the homes of people. Water captured form the faucets of your sinks and toilets does pass through some purification stages, but it's ultimately discharged into a river or something.

However, any sufficiently advanced sci-fi novel, cartoon, or film will make it clear that it's only a matter of time before we start recycling sewage.

We saw it in Dune, we saw it in Godfrey and Zeek, and soon enough, we'll see it in real life if the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center has its way.

How the most advanced water purification center works

The Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center from Santa Clara County first feeds treated wastewater from the city of San Jose through small tubes that open into a microfiltration unit made of thousands of hollow fibers resembling straws.

Bacteria, solids, protozoa, and some viruses are filtered out by extremely fine pores (0.1 micron in diameter) located on the sides of those fibers. In layman terms, each pore is as thick as 1/300 of a human hair.

The next step is to force the water through membranes with even smaller holes, which allow only water molecules to pass and not much else. This is called reverse osmosis.

This basically separates the water from salts, viruses, pesticides, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants. Finally, the water is passed through chambers where ultraviolet light kills anything that made it through. Or at least 99.99% of all pathogens.

Santa Clara Valley Water District recycled water unit manager Hossein Ashktorab says that the process yields around 8 million gallons / 30 million liters of water that is almost as pure as distilled (boiled) water.

Currently, the system is used to improve the quality of recycled water for the whole country by treating water from older recycling systems and releasing it into existing recycled water from the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility.

The ETA for recycled water to be offered to drink

Based on current estimates, recycled water like this will be flowing out of water taps by 2025. Given the droughts that tend to hit various places around the world, especially California, citizens may have no choice but to accept it.

Besides, pretty much every fruit or vegetable we eat is recycled manure anyway (you know, fertilizer), so it's not quite as horrifying as it sounds.