Few may have noticed, but there is a large amount of purple colored pipe being installed in the ground all over the country. This purple pipe is used to properly identify that the water being delivered in these plumbing fixtures is recycled water. Due to increasing drought conditions more municipalities have been providing recycled water to the public. You may be wondering, what is recycled water? What is recycled water used for? How much recycled water are you drinking on a day to day basis? We here at Water Nuggets have the answers.
What is Recycled Water
“Recycled” or “Reused” water is simply waste water from the sanitary sewer system that has gone through an extensive water treatment process. This treated water is then re-distributed through a water system specifically designated for reuse. The water treatment plants used for purifying your drinking water are not in any way connected to the water treatment plants responsible for creating recycled water. The same goes for the piping. The pipe that carries your drinking water is not the same that carries recycled water. In fact, one of the many rules that ensure your drinking water is not mixed with recycled water is that recycled water pipes must be purple in color. So if you are not drinking recycled water, what is it used for?
What is Recycled Water Used For
Recycled water has many uses that you might not even think about. The most common use is for irrigation. There are many medians along our city streets and business park lawns that are using recycled water for irrigation purposes. Another use of recycled water is the drive thru car wash you may purchase for $10 while filling up your car with gas. Maybe the most obvious use of recycled water is for toilet flushing. More and more business are starting to plumb recycled water into their restrooms. There are also more and more apartment complexes being built with this “dual Plumbed” model. Dual plumbing is where you have one plumbing system for drinking water and another separate plumbing system for irrigation and toilet flushing. With all this recycled water use, how much of this reused water does the average person drinking a day?
Can You Drink Recycled Water
As of now, a majority of Americans do not drink any recycled water. There is a water company in Texas that has been talking about the use of recycled water in their, “Toilet to Tap” program for drinking purposes. The public’s response to municipalities wanting to supplement their drinking water supplies with recycled water has not exactly been met with open arms. In the future the use of recycled water as a drinking water supply might be unavoidable with fresh water supplies seeming to dwindle more and more each year. The good news is that the treatment standards for recycled water are extremely stringent and at the highest levels. If recycled water was used for drinking purposes, it would most likely be blended with drinking water from a fresh water source. Until that time, we keep a look out for those purple pipes being installed in the ground and don’t drink the recycled water…yet.
We here at Water Nuggets hope you enjoyed this nugget of water information and look forward to more of your comments and questions at www.waternuggets.com
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