San Diego is going to Recycle Waste Water into drinking water. Sounds disgusting? (You can Relax. You're not drinking sewage! You are drinking pure, cleaned, water.) In fact Astronauts on the ISS drink recycled water, all the time, and are Healthy.

San Diego Pursues Drought-Proof Water Supply

Credit: San Diego County Water Authority The desert-like grounds around the San Diego County Water Authority offices are dressed in a water-wise xeriscape of cacti and aloe. The sky is a monotone blue and - even though it's January - the temperature is in the 80s.

From article, (One step beyond water recycling is sanitizing wastewater for drinking and it’s the next frontier of local water production. The County Water Authority expects potable reuse to provide 16 percent of local water by 2035.

 A water engineer stands near a series of ponds and a small water purification plant in western Santee. His name is Al Lau, with the Padre Dam Water District, and the plant is a demonstration project which he says is the beginning of a process that will lead to millions of gallons a day of purified wastewater.

Today the pipe that carries treated wastewater from East County to be dumped in the Pacific Ocean is just a couple miles away.

“We see all the wastewater flow past us, 14 million gallons a day, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. We see that as a wasted resource. We see the opportunity to capture that and turn that into a resilient water supply for our community,” Lau said.

At a cost of $460 million, Padre Dam wants to phase in a system that will eventually treat East County wastewater and make it clean enough to drink.

“We’re going to take all of that 14 million gallons of wastewater, generate a purified water supply and pump it into Lake Jennings,” he said. “That water, once it’s in Lake Jennings, will blend with other imported water supplies, where it will be treated again…and that water will be provided to the entire community of East County.”

The City of San Diego Public Works Department is building an even bigger system of purifying wastewater. Spokesman Brent Eidson said they plan to eventually divert 100 million gallons a day from the Point Loma treatment plant and turn it into potable water. A San Diego City Council vote on the environmental review documents for the new facilities comes up in April. The cost of building phase one of the project is $1.3 billion.)

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