Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007 | Your Aug. 5, 2006 editorial about indirect potable water reuse is relevant now.
I agree that, with a projected 30-40 percent cut in our regional water supplies next year, it is time for the San Diego City Council to get serious about pursuing repurification and reuse of our limited potable water supplies. The federal, state and local scientists have all weighed finding that IPR does not threaten public health in any way.
As you correctly pointed out, all the water we import today is recycled wastewater in one form or another, coming from hundreds of local wastewater agencies upstream of us. Nobody has gotten sick from drinking that water once the city has treated it to meet federal and state clean water standards, and I don’t believe anyone will get sick drinking our own repurified waste water, after it has been blended into local water reservoirs for a year or more then treated again in put into our water distribution system.
Cities in the greater Los Angeles area have been drinking repurified waste water for a decade. Its time for our small-town provincial minded city council to move into the 20th century and approve IPR here before we run out of water altogether.