Britons must drink recycled sewage

[R. Richard]

All I gotta' say, is "Don't try to hand ME that shit!"

Britons must drink recycled sewage

LONDON: Britain needs to use more recycled effluent as drinking water if it is to deal with a long-term shortage crisis, a report said today.

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) said using treated sewage was one radical suggestion that needed to be pursued if the country was deal with the growing problem.

It also called for a rise in spending on infrastructure along with price rises of up to 20 per cent to fund the replacement of old, leaky pipes, particularly in London.

Many UK water companies were forced to impose tough restrictions on water usage this summer, banning the use of hosepipes and sprinklers, because of low reservoir levels.

The Environment Agency said southeast England had endured its worst drought for a century.

"Parts of the UK are experiencing long term water shortages, so we need a range of solutions to keep the water running," said John Lawson, the ICE's Water Board chairman.

"Effluent water reuse is still a relatively untapped way of providing drinking water to meet growing long term needs."

Sewage can be turned into drinking water by processes which sieve and then chemically clean the water so it can be put back into rivers to be re-treated for human consumption.

In its annual State of the Nation report, ICE also suggested compulsory water metering to encourage users to save water in areas where it was scarce, together with the building of new reservoirs and desalination plants.

"Water consumer prices will have to rise to pay for new infrastructure – an uncomfortable fact customers, the government and regulators must recognise," Lawson said.

"We currently pay less for our water than many of our European neighbours – something that will have to change to keep our taps from running dry."

However Water UK, a body which represents Britain's water companies, said the ICE report gave a "false analysis" of future resources and accused it of "sensationalism".

"While the industry, its regulators and the government keep all potential supply measures under review to ensure security of supply, there is no intention or need to change the current policy on effluent reuse," Water UK said in a statement.

 

[oggbashan]

This isn't new.

Londoners have been doing that for years.

It has been estimated that the water Londoners use goes around twenty times before getting into the Thames and out to sea.

Og

 

[R. Richard]

This isn't new.

Londoners have been doing that for years.

It has been estimated that the water Londoners use goes around twenty times before getting into the Thames and out to sea.

Og

How are bottled water sales in greater London?

 

[scheherazade_79]

It's better than the shit that gets turned into burgers at American fast food joints.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

How are bottled water sales in greater London?

I cannot give you statistics, but I've spent a small fortune on Evian in the past 10 years.

 

[oggbashan]

How are bottled water sales in greater London?

Disastrous since Coca Cola tried to market bottled water drawn from the tap in London.

Almost any bottled water has more impurities than London's tap water.

Og

 

[NoJo]

I drink tap water exclusively and it hasn43 27 dahhe h wsw23 in any way,

 

[R. Richard]

Disastrous since Coca Cola tried to market bottled water drawn from the tap in London.

Almost any bottled water has more impurities than London's tap water.

Og

I used to live in New York City. Supposedly NYC has the best tap water of any large city in the US. In fact, they do sell bottled NYC tap water.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Southern California water is similar though with greatly reduced standards of water treatment for each cycle. Basically if you can taste the trace arsenic (you can in San Diego), it probably trumps most civilized cities for "good god" value. Basically southern californians have to buy water filtration devices of their own to get rid of all the unhealthy crap the water treatment plants were supposed to have. Though to be fair, it's practically sewage water by the time it reaches us and the water treatment plants do the best they can.

Overall, it reminds me of a George Carlin sketch where he notices that no one trusts the water anywhere in America.

 

[R. Richard]

Southern California water is similar though with greatly reduced standards of water treatment for each cycle. Basically if you can taste the trace arsenic (you can in San Diego), it probably trumps most civilized cities for "good god" value. Basically southern californians have to buy water filtration devices of their own to get rid of all the unhealthy crap the water treatment plants were supposed to have. Though to be fair, it's practically sewage water by the time it reaches us and the water treatment plants do the best they can.

Overall, it reminds me of a George Carlin sketch where he notices that no one trusts the water anywhere in America.

I used to live in San Diego. To give the average reader some idea of the water situation there, the monthly user bill is based upon "chunks." Actually San Diego water is mostly drinkable after you filter and distill it.

I also used to live in a city where the water first comes out of the mountains that rim the Los Angeles basin. The water had to have so much chlorine in it that it would try to crawl out of the glass and attack the drinker if he/she did not drink it fast enough. By the time the water got to Long Beach at the end of the distribution chain, you don't want to know.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

i recommend never drinking chicago tap water. i remember i used to run the water in my parents house and you could smell the chlorine...like a public pool....

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Hey, Astronauts drink recycled body waste and they do fine.

Just bottle the stuff, call it "Astronagua" and charge $1.99 a bottle and watch it fly off the shelves.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Sorry but all water is recycled sewage. Dino pee.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Sorry but all water is recycled sewage. Dino pee.

He's right, you know. The water in sewage evaporates and falls to Earth as rain or snow. A lot of it lands in lakes or rivers and is consumed. Some of it goes to aquifers and is consumed.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

He's right, you know. The water in sewage evaporates and falls to Earth as rain or snow. A lot of it lands in lakes or rivers and is consumed. Some of it goes to aquifers and is consumed.

Yuck. I hadn't thought about that and now I wish I hadn't read about it either.

 

[amicus]

Only the 'low countries' are of the "Soylent Green" mentality, Brits will drink Gin, the Frogs Wine, the Russians, Vodka, and the Yanks, Coke, all pasteurized and sterile...nevermind...


amicus...

 

[R. Richard]

He's right, you know. The water in sewage evaporates and falls to Earth as rain or snow. A lot of it lands in lakes or rivers and is consumed. Some of it goes to aquifers and is consumed.

True, but the process of evaporation is also know by a different name: distillation. The distilled water goes into the atmosphere and is the returned to the earth as rain/fog/mist. The returned water then winds up in the ocean, lakes, rivers or soaks into the ground and enters aquifers. The process of evaporation and return to the system has been going on for millions of years.

The difference between the natural process and human processes is that mother nature never comes to work drunk or hungover and forgets to turn a critical valve.

 

[Boxlicker101]

True, but the process of evaporation is also know by a different name: distillation. The distilled water goes into the atmosphere and is the returned to the earth as rain/fog/mist. The returned water then winds up in the ocean, lakes, rivers or soaks into the ground and enters aquifers. The process of evaporation and return to the system has been going on for millions of years.

The difference between the natural process and human processes is that mother nature never comes to work drunk or hungover and forgets to turn a critical valve.

Of course. If this were not so, all life would have died out or would have developed an immunity to e coli and hundreds of other diseases. Even so, regardless of the process, it's still recycling sewage to drink, whether the sewage was produced by dinosaurs or humans.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

There's a famous example they use in freshman chemistry that says that every glass of water you consume - no matter what the source - contains something like 10 molecules of water that are from Julius Ceasar's urine.

Urine, by the way, is sterile (or should be if you're healthy). There's no living organisms in there. Washing a wound with urine is a common and sensible practice in some countries where access to sterile water's a problem.

I might also mention that Perrier Water's been found to contain benzene, a known carcinogen (but Perrier's a spring water and isn't purified by distillation, which would remove benzene), and that bottled water, unlike municipal water, doesn't have to meet standards of purity under the law. A few years ago it was revealed that some name brand American bottled water was actually Miami municipal water, although this wasn't misrepresentation or fraud. It said right on the label: "Contents: City of Miami Municipal Water" and sold for $1.19 a bottle or something.

 

[oggbashan]

...I might also mention that Perrier Water's been found to contain benzene, a known carcinogen (but Perrier's a spring water and isn't purified by distillation, which would remove benzene), and that bottled water, unlike municipal water, doesn't have to meet standards of purity under the law. A few years ago it was revealed that some name brand American bottled water was actually Miami municipal water, although this wasn't misrepresentation or fraud. It said right on the label: "Contents: City of Miami Municipal Water" and sold for $1.19 a bottle or something.

Perrier and benzene was an anomaly that was corrected after a massive withdrawal. All French bottled water has to pass government tests.

Coca Cola set up a plant in London to sell Dasani - a bottled water that was taken directly from tap water. Once it was revealed that Dasani was tap water the product flopped.

Edited for link to BBC News story on Dasani: Here

Og

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And as we all know the water here on earth came originally from comets striking the surface of earth many eons ago. And who knows where the water from those comets came from...it might even be alien sewage shot into space to get rid of the stuff.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

And as we all know the water here on earth came originally from comets striking the surface of earth many eons ago. And who knows where the water from those comets came from...it might even be alien sewage shot into space to get rid of the stuff.

I think they were trying to get rid of their Dasani.

 

[NoJo]

One of my father's WWII anectodes: In Egypt, where he was stationed, the water was stored in empty aircraft fuel drums. Apparently lighting farts was the major entertainment during his two years there.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Just for your enjoyment, I thought you might like to see the FDA's ideas on what kind of contamination (i.e. "filth") is allowable in food.

The list is here. FDA Action Levels

Just use the aphabetized index to look up the food of your choice and see how many rodent hairs or drosophilia eggs per gram are acceptable.