We’re about to drink toilet water. Why that’s a good and safe thing to do.
The city of San Diego is currently building a massive wastewater-to-drinking water recycling system – but it must tear up the streets to do it. The new pipe route tunnels from Morena Pump Station near the San Diego International Airport, then 10 miles north to University City and then another 8 miles to Miramar Reservoir, the final stop for all our transformed toilet water. But wait – why is San Diego drinking its own sewage in the first place? And how is that even possible? Right now, San Diego depends largely on water imported from hundreds of miles away, a plant in Carlsbad that makes ocean water drinkable and the small amount of rain that falls locally. But that imported water is growing less dependable as climate change and overuse zap the Colorado River and Sierra Nevada snowpack of its reliability.