… Normally in the US, all [household] water would flush out to a treatment facility, and eventually out to a body of water; 34 billion gallons of wastewater is processed this way across the country every day. But with multiple problems for cities now converging—extreme heat, water shortages, and rapid population growth—increasingly scientists are finding clever ways to extract more use from water that’s flushed away. … What Epic Cleantec has achieved is to essentially shrink down what a water recycling plant does into a system that fits in a high-rise basement, lightening the burden on municipal wastewater treatment and reducing pressure on water supplies.