How Sewage Becomes Drinking Water

How do you make wastewater drinkable? It starts at the sewage treatment plant.
Ongoing droughts are straining the supply of clean drinking water. One solution might lie in an unexpected source: wastewater. Through a method of purification called reverse osmosis, Orange Country is making millions of gallons of dirty water drinkable again.
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[@thomaslentz8209]

That's what I do for a living! Reverse osmosis is the key! You can also turn sea/salt water into safe drinking water!

[@ciddyboy718]

Giant cruise ships do it all the time.

[@Woodcliff14]

Is it interesting work?

[@sarahdiane24]

What is your job called

[@dertythegrower]

​@@sarahdiane24Water Engineer 😅

[@Iz0pen]

@@sarahdiane24 pi55 engineer

[@ChatMania487]

I wish that they would have explained the purpose of the aeration better. Adding oxygen allows bacteria to quickly use up the nutrients in the water. This has two purposes: it reduces biological contamination by removing bio waste. But it also makes it safer to return the water to rivers and oceans. Natural water systems would be thrown off balance with such a large influx of nutrients, causing such problems as algal booms, or deprivation of oxygen by bacteria that are eating up the nutrients and using up all the O2, suffocating other life. Which makes me wonder why California has been simply dumping waste in the ocean when they are ostensibly the most environmentally minded state, when other states have been aerating waste water.

[@asan1050]

THANKSMUCH !

[@troy3456789]

You get an excellent lesson in how it works with a wastewater license class. It's really very cool how it works.

[@PaulHo]

Born and bred in Orange County, when I visit people from other states they think it's wild that I'll ask them for tap water.

[@0ttselChops]

You'll drink the poo water, and you'll like it.

[@BuckshotsSmokeLounge]

Yup

[@aaronwhager]

yea man, wtf

[@ashgaming6795]

Forget poo we all end up in one another after nature recycles us over a long period of time. Calcium, Phosphorus, carbon, hydrogen all of it will be recycled.

[@GoodVibesOnly1914]

This is why i went to great lengths to have well water from an area with no runoff

[@MarquisTheCoder-sr6wq]

This is really great just don’t tell me if I’m drinking reclaimed water

[@partdeux992]

this thing doesn't get rid of prescription drugs cleanly does it?

[@Anne_Onymous]

Shut up and drink your poo water!

[@EatDrinkBeMerry]

It says it does. The reverse osmosis process filters down to the water molecule level.

[@user-dc1dr9kr8x]

Great question....keep asking them please

[@bhatkat]

@@EatDrinkBeMerry Yup, filters have gotten so good they can separate alcohol and water now, large meds molecules would be no problem.

[@dertythegrower]

depends on the RO system... many cannot. The ones Purina and Cocacola amd (Water War Nestle) are massively bigger than a home RO one or three stahe

[@ribukesh3844]

That dirty water affects sea living and environment?

[@Tis_I_SirJames]

I heard it's very possible that we're drinking the same water that people thousands of years ago have drank. Think about that.

[@simplysavvy0113]

Even more intriguing to consider that water has "memory" ! Imagine what it's capable of holding and transferring !

[@zeitgeist7788]

Well, of course because Earth has only a certain amount of water. And that goes through the 'water cycle' over and over again for centuries even when dinosaurs were alive.

[@josephpiskac2781]

What about the big ocean next door?

[@muffindolphindaphnee]

It requires more energy to convert salt water into drinking water, which is more expensive especially the US and Cali

[@josephpiskac2781]

@@muffindolphindaphnee Sunlight is free? It seems solar distillation offers greater capacity than reverse osmosis filters?

[@dertythegrower]

​@@josephpiskac2781buddy, no.. 😆

[@bhatkat]

Nothing really new in that the sun distills all the rain we get, we have always been drinking recycled dinosaur pee.

[@nicolenew1708]

SUPER COOL

[@djayjp]

1:32 Yeah that definitely looks clean....

[@troy3456789]

It really is very clean by the time it finishes being processed. Most of it is accomplished by bacteria and bugs. It requires constant monitoring, documentation and constant adjustment to get the output water clean. The two main causes of problems in a wastewater system is chemicals that kill bacteria and "I&I" (inflow and infiltration) by rainwater.

[@djayjp]

@@troy3456789 How do you explain the green, horrible looking appearance then...?

[@troy3456789]

@@djayjp That does look horrible and it is not the natural outcome of wastewater treatment plants. I am not sure why they chose that bit of video to show viewers. It looks like California is attempting to do something that hardly anyone else is doing: that is to pipe the output of treatment plants directly back into the freshwater drinking supply.

[@sleepy4149]

@@djayjp how dumb are you they said they used to send it miles of coast untreated while they showed that so I’m more then positive that’s illustrated how it used to be not now

[@goldenageofdinosaurs7192]

@@djayjp You probably shouldn’t make judgements when you have little to no idea what’s being done. Nobody says that water was potable, only clean enough to be released. Do the Mississippi or Amazon rivers look crystal clear when they run into the ocean? Of course not. I’d pretty much guarantee that water being released is significantly cleaner than the water from a major river. Your brain is the end point of nearly 4 billion years of evolution. You should use it to think past, “Well, it looks kinda dirty…”

[@xpozen8994]

"Modern" life style where one drinks sewage water and genetically altered foods.

[@SirGriefALot]

That's disgusting. 🤢🤮🤮 I would pay more for non "recycled" water.

[@sleepy4149]

All water is recycled at some point I guess you never learned about the water cycle 😂

[@l0g1cseer47]

Why not simply steam the water and distilled and condensed back with minerals.. Would that not be more practicable? Anyways, great water sustainable recovery solution.. Thank you for sharing.

[@tctk1]

Steam takes a TON of energy to produce in large volumes

[@l0g1cseer47]

@@tctk1 use the solar panels to do the heating which already a well known functional and practicable in many 30°c to 35°c countries. With climate change that is more likely scenario..

[@tctk1]

@@l0g1cseer47 climate change doesn't mean more sunlight. Temperature differences don't mean more sunlight. Secondly the cost benefit ratio of solar for that is insane. Solar isn't as efficient as you're assuming it is. Also I'm a waste water operator.. So take my word for my career

[@l0g1cseer47]

@@tctk1 the waste water tissue filtration represents a major risk of health concern to individual like you at more risk of danger. And it is for everyone benefits to understand that what I am indicating is much more sensible solution to prevent further more risk to human population.

[@adammuncy8475]

I see it more as a combination system. Reverse Osmosis is expensive due to the amount of pressure needed to force the water through the membranes. You could prefilter with larger micron filters that remove heavier particles but allow smaller ones through. Then you could utilize the deserts to focus sunlight to a focused point that then reflects down onto a greenhouse with a pipe at the top for the vapor distillation.

[@Iz0pen]

F that! N O !!!

[@CambridgeArtz]

"Don't pooh-pooh this water"....*ME- looks like someone already did it for me! *Rimshot*

[@EatDrinkBeMerry]

Couldn’t help but to cringe when he drank that water at the end.

[@adlibruj]

R.I.P.

[@naturalvee67]

Why? It's safe enough to drink.

[@EatDrinkBeMerry]

@@naturalvee67 I’d drink it, too. But the idea is wild.

[@MrWeird-mu5ul]

​@@EatDrinkBeMerryUnless you like to drink contaminated water from other places.

[@audiofactory3058]

We All Drink This Water at Home

[@dr.m.hfuhruhurr84]

& then companies like the Tennessee Valley Authority & Enron© show up to improve things?

[@NonBinary_Star]

3min long??? 😩

[@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245]

Now if only we can figure out how to remove salt from ocean water, and we’ll stay hydrated

[@sleepy4149]

We know how just not profitable

[@Metacognition88]

Drinking water? Eewwww. All I drink is soda

[@BajanNatureMysticDolt]

All I drink is monster.

[@RUNNOFT71]

Dear god no

[@susanyeh4423]

Disgusting idea, why not let the animals to drink it first.or use it to flush the toilet or use it to water the crop and plants.

[@Thewhitewarrior]

I’m gonna be sick🤢

[@winningsidewinningside703]

AWFUL!!!

[@yaosio]

Very inappropriate music. Very badly made video as well. Try again.

[@YmgBandz]

India needs this 😂😂😂😂