Toilet Water Purification Coming To California

Toilet water purification is coming to California.

When you think of purified water, you probably imagine a distant mountain waterfall shining in the sunlight, and a machine at the bottom collecting it and sending it through a filter. The label on that machine probably says it’s owned by Coca-Cola, Nestle, or even some independent bottled water company like the one behind Smart Water or Perrier. You probably don’t think of a toilet flushing into a similar machine.

Chances are, you just looked at your bottled water a little funny.

Yes, that’s what they’re eventually hoping to achieve, but for now, the toilet water is planned to be purified and sent to fire hydrants. Public perception is the biggest reason California isn’t taking your toilet water and fooling you into drinking it. They would rather tell you first.

Santa Clara County has a new sewage treatment facility costing nearly $70 million, and it makes toilet water end up actually cleaner than what the area has you drinking right now, according to CBS San Francisco. If the public can be successfully educated on the process, the near-limitless source of clean water could eventually head to your store shelves.

The Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center, opening this fall, eventually aims to turn your toilet water into drinking water, and public reaction is what they hope to sway before they plan to make it happen.

It could literally take decades to convince the populace to decide that what they flush can be purified and sent right back to the store in water bottles. For now, the common reaction would most likely be a collective “Ewww.” Dogs drink out of the toilet, but that doesn’t mean people want to do the same, especially after it’s been flushed.

Marty Grimes of the Santa Clara Valley Water District says, “It takes a long time to educate folks and grasp this concept that this water can be purified to a level that’s cleaner than what we are already drinking. The reality is that we are able to produce water that is cleaner than all of our other water sources.”

The plan is to have over eight million gallons of toilet water sent through microfilters, and a process including reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light to remove all impurities.

Do you think people can be convinced that the toilet water they flush can be purified and made cleaner than what they drink?