After four years of severe drought the Wichita Falls, Texas city officials have began to blend 5 million gallons of treated wastewater into their municipal water system, starting in July. To fully launch the "Direct Potable Reuse Project," the city pipes water 12 miles from its wastewater treatment plant to the treatment facility where it goes through microfiltration. A pump pulls water through a module filled with fibers that remove most (...most..) of the impurites and at the end gets belended with lake water that supplies the drinking water to the city. Wichita Falls has become somewhat of a punchline for its desperate water ideas, but I believe the rest of Texas is watching closely to see how the plan ultimately goes. Obvisouly, the lack of water is a huge issue right now that no one wants to talk about, so really Wichita Falls is taking great strides I think to help with the problem and setting an example for the rest of this huge ass desert of a state.
However, the best part of all of the rest of Texas turning their nose up to the Toilet Water 2.0 plan is a lot of Texans have already been drinking waste water and don't even know it! Accoding to the Texas Tribune article I recently read, the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro's waste water is deposited into the Trinity River, where if flows down into lakes that supplies to Houston residents. I always knew I didn't like Houston for a good reason! Also, apparently, their was a court battle on the rights of San Antonio's wastewate, which not only flows through the highly tourist spot, the Riverwalk (too good to be true), but also blends into The guadalupe-Blanco River that supplies to south Texas cities!
Austin among other Texas cities have been researching for many years now to reuse sewage water, so think twice before you throw shade on the people of Whiticha Falls. Your town could be next suckers!
