People in Colorado think their drinking water comes from pure mountain snowmelt. But for people who live in Aurora, as much as 20% of the water supply comes from recycled wastewater. I just found out about this today, but it isn't really news.
There is a project called "Prairie Waters" which was completed in 2010 at a cost of $653 million. Prairie Waters sounds benign, but this is really what happens. Aurora is a member of the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, which covers 710 sq. miles and nearly all of the Denver area. When you flush your toilet, it goes into the sewage system and gets treated at the "reclamation plant" at 64th & York, and then it is dumped into the South Platte River. The South Platte River actually flows north at this point.
In Brighton, 12 miles downstream, the river water is just pumped from the ground. To make this less gross, the pumping stations are 300 feet from the river. It is then piped 34 miles to a treatment facility north of the Aurora Reservoir. Since this is higher in elevation than Brighton, it is actually pumped uphill with 3 pumping stations along the way. The treated water is then put into the Aurora Reservoir where it is mixed with the pure Rocky Mountain snowmelt. It is presumably (I can't find a link) then treated again when it is taken out of the reservoir and put in the city's water system.
By setting up a system of filtration pumps 12 miles downstream from where it releases its wastewater, Aurora will be able to reclaim 3.3 billion extra gallons, keeping that added volume flowing in an infinite loop.
One problem is taste (hmm, really?). All of this water meets federal quality standards, but the challenge for Aurora was taste. “Our current water comes off the mountains—it’s effectively snowmelt,” Binney says. To ensure that its residents never detect a difference, the city is building a state-of-the-art filtration plant to augment the natural purification process that begins in the river. “We are monitoring this thing,” he touts, “as much as you would a brewery or a good whiskey distillery.” (http://www.metropolismag.com/uncategorized/h20-s-m-blbprairie-waters-project/).
The water is zapped with massive amounts of ultraviolet light to kill off any microbes.
The water is sent through sand and charcoal filters and piped 34 miles to the Binney treatment facility. There, it is treated with chemicals.
Some 6,912 ultraviolet bulbs zap the water to clean it further. CH2M Hill was the project manager for Prairie Waters. CH2M Hill chairman Lee McIntire said during the ceremony that the project has more ultraviolet power than any water-treatment facility in the world.
http://www.denverpost.com/2010/10/08/auroras-state-of-the-art-653-million-water-treatment-facility-opens/
And now you know ... the rest of the story. I wonder, how many Aurora real estate agents tell buyers about this?
See also: https://coyotegulch.blog/category/colorado-water/aurora/prairie-waters/
The question is, do minute amounts of drugs such as caffeine, ibuprofen and other assorted "antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones" still live in the water in so many parts per quadrillion?
No comments:
Post a Comment