Many
cities throughout the world are considering recycling municipal
wastewater back to their main drinking water supply. Billions of gallons
of water per day are released from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP,s) and
little of it is deliberately utilized for drinking water.
Residents of numerous urban regions have little idea that they have
already been consuming the discharge water from WWTP's and have been
doing so for decades.
Most
of California is a great example.
In
the San Francisco Bay Area the communities of Concord, Antioch,
Pittsburg, Brentwood and parts of Walnut Creek obtain their drinking
water from the Contra Costa Water District. The intakes of
this water district's supply are within the San Joaquin and Sacramento
River Delta east of San Francisco. The city of Stockton, CA. primary
wastewater treatment plant discharges water into the delta and does so
in a location that makes it quite likely to flow near the Contra Costa
Water Districts intakes. The industrial section of Stockton also
discharges in a nearby location.
In
fact, the intakes for all of the water heading south to the Los Angeles
basin, via the huge California Aqueduct, can reverse the flow of the
delta waters nearly insuring that a portion of the discharge from Stockton and all
cities discharging their industrial and municipal wastewater to the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers reaches the Contra Costa Water
District intakes, as well as the intakes for Los Angeles area residents.
California is experiencing a drought. In these time of drought a great
percentage of the flows down the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers are
those of discharges from WWTP's.
It is true that many of the
unhealthy constituents are reduced or destroyed while the water "ages"
and passes through the delta and aqueduct but a glass of aged wine might
sound better for your evening meal.
This first aerial image is of one of the intake
locations for the Contra Costa Water District, as marked by arrows.
View Larger Map
Note
the reservoir now in site. That is called the Clifton Court Forebay: the location of the intakes for the California
Aqueduct and
source of water for much of the Los Angeles Basin.
View Larger Map
Follow this link to
see a closer image of this forebay and the point of beginning for the
flow of water south to the Los Angeles basin.
View Larger Map
This larger images
shows the Sacramento Delta as it meets San Francisco Bay.
A large number of
the cities that you can see on this satellite image have WWTP's
discharging to streams and rivers leading into the Sacramento and San
Joaquin River Delta.
View Larger Map
The evidence of the
Stockton discharge policies are now going to court.
The California Sportfishing Alliance, along with other environmental
groups is suing the City of Stockton. They claim the city's wastewater
plant and sewer drains are dangerously polluting the San Joaquin River.
Follow this link to view the Stockton WWTP and the
Port of Stockton, adjacent a large industrial area.
View the Stockton WWTP and Port.
View the Sacramento WWTP.
(Note its proximity to the
Sacramento River)
You may scroll out on the second
image and see the location of many WWTP plants and their proximity to
the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
