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IBeDumbAndSlow t1_iwgwvyd wrote

Reply to comment by gunplumber700 in Recycled wastewater is not only as safe to drink as conventional potable water, it may even be less toxic than many sources of water we already drink daily by giuliomagnifico

Can you share any information you may have on the amount of Rx medicine that's in waste water? I read years ago about how our wastewater is getting polluted by medication from renal excretion. I'm curious as to how known or unknown this phenomenon is.

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gunplumber700 t1_iwgzwv4 wrote

Im sure it’s there, but not something that’s measured on a daily basis. It’s usually university researchers doing that type thing. It’s not really in the realm of day to day operations.

Most of it is pretty dilute. I don’t have any numbers for you, so I can’t give you an answer other than I don’t know and my speculating that it’s pretty dilute. I would be carful of apply research from specific cases and instances to the industry as a whole.

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Percyheckendorf t1_iwi6gtq wrote

As someone who’s been in on this research. It is the main, non-policy related, impediment to DPR. They don’t degrade so they will get increasingly less dilute in a closed system.

hormones such as estrogen will likely be an issue for every application

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gunplumber700 t1_iwiyrop wrote

So for me that’s another reason to avoid it.

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Percyheckendorf t1_iwj2lks wrote

Which may not be an option, as southwestern cities such as Phoenix and LA are likely to fail within the century without it.

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gunplumber700 t1_iwj5sfa wrote

From one of my other comments:

“This is for places like LA (who steals water from everywhere else) and Las Vegas. Look at LA’s water loss. In my 5 minute search it looks like they use 10,999 MILLION gallons of water a month. Their water loss is 7%. That means the lose 770 MILLION gallons of clean treated water a month. 770 MILLION gallons of clean potable water is wasted. We’re going to clean and reuse wastewater but we can’t even keep from losing clean water? I don’t think so. When LA stops stealing water from everywhere and they start doing this I’ll believe it.”

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Percyheckendorf t1_iwj8j3y wrote

Well Vegas is already world class in water reuse. Basically only Israel beats them. we will certainly go to water reuse before we repair/replace LA’s entire pipe system. That is crazy difficult and expensive and an ordinary problem for most networks (though probably worse in la due to the seismic activity) Meanwhile there are already wastewater plants producing drinking quality effluent. It’s clear cut the cheaper solution short term

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gunplumber700 t1_iwjcxy6 wrote

So the “it’s cheaper” excuse only works as a short term solution.

Look at all the municipalities with constant main breaks because they think “it was made better” back in the day.

I’m not saying replace the entire system overnight but it needs to be replaced as it ages, which include metering equipment that under report, meaning you’ll underbill someone as they age as well.

Still not saying there aren’t places that do it, just that it’s unnecessary given the alternatives that have to be addressed anyway.

It kind of avoids the fact that many plants don’t have the ability to just turn up chemical dosing and call it good.

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Percyheckendorf t1_iwjgzh9 wrote

They will eventually, when they are done they will start again, because pipes will always leak. its only a max 7% increase, which is not enough

Yes the plants will need to be retrofitted with more advanced processes.

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AdultEnuretic t1_iwhd5hx wrote

I always wonder about this as well. I feel like I'm a walking pharmacy (13 scripts daily) so I know I'm excreting a lot. Most people are obviously a lot less, but I know the Rx contamination is out there.

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