Cities and counties across the United States have increasingly been turning to recycled sewer water as one way to meet growing drinking-water demand. Recycling sewer water, or turning toilet water into drinking water via purification, has often repulsed opponents due to the high costs of treatment and the drinking-former-toilet-water gag factor. However, despite sometimes vocal opposition from the public, communities with huge projected increases in water demand have been pursuing the option anyway in the face of stagnating supplies. Earlier this year, Orange County, Calif., completed the largest and most high-tech water-recycling system in the world that churns out 70 million drinkable gallons of water a day from effluent. Los Angeles just announced plans to recycle 4.9 billion gallons of wastewater by 2019, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., is planning to convert 23 million gallons of wastewater a day into drinking water. So far, environmentalists have offered measured praise for water recycling; some have said that if the practice is adopted on a large enough scale, it might eventually make up for people crapping in drinkable water in the first place.
