[moyta]

Los Angeles could also recycle its water for a much lower cost than desalination, but due to campaigns that claim it is unsanitary (ass to glass, etc) it is not an option politically.

Another angle on this is why are we scrutinizing only where 10% of California's water usage is, while ignoring 90% (farms)? Why do California's farmers have the right to the majority of the water while paying next to nothing for that water as compared to the rates the other users of water pay?

[WalterBright]

There was a photo a while back of somebody urinating in a reservoir, and there was subsequent outrage and calls to put an enormously expensive cover over the reservoir (i.e. lake), etc.

Never mind that all the wildlife that urinates/defecates in it, the dead animals in it, etc., which nobody minds.

[Terr_]

Minor devil's-advocacy: It's reasonable to score the risk from human material/pathogens higher than animal ones.

[Spooky23]

Not really, it's pure hysteria.

Urine is generally sterile, it's actually an accepted first aid practice to urinate on a bandage or create a urine paste to treat a wound in the field in emergency conditions.

[niels_olson]

What this really ignores is all the inland cities that use the same water source, one down-stream from the next, from the great lakes to the gulf of Mexico. I toured one of those sewage treatment plants in 1993 (1). It remains one of the most beautiful visions of my life: clear water flowing over algea-covered wooden beams, glowing in the natural sunlight, no odor whatsoever.

You can't make this stuff up. Civil engineers are amazing.

Edit: also, as per my other comment, urine, in the voided stream, is not sterile, and even if it were, certainly contains all the building blocks for bacterial growth.

(1) https://encrypted.google.com/maps/place/Johnson+County+Waste...

[pitaj]

Is it civil engineering? I thought that hydraulics was a mechanical engineering field.

[mgkimsal]

it might be reasonable to start with that assumption, but actually do tests to determine what's more dangerous. then put processes in place to clean the water from the dangerous stuff (from both humans and animals)

[moultano]

Urine is sterile.

[niels_olson]

As a pathology resident, I assure you, the voided stream is not sterile, and definitely has all the building blocks necessary for bacterial growth.

That said, inland cities all recycle water. And they generally return water into the rivers that is cleaner than what they took out.

[Terr_]

Only before it starts leaving the body.

[cestith]

I grew up in a town along the Mississippi River. It's "ass to glass" all the way from Minnesota to Louisiana. Basically every city, town, and village on both banks treats its drinking water and its wastewater, then releases its treated wastewater downstream.

Are the farmers paying so much less for treated, potable tap water delivered through municipal water mains? I think you'll find the cost of the water itself is pretty small. You may find that treating it, transporting it, and distributing it pretreated to all those people are the real economic costs even during most stages of a drought.

[hueving]

The farmers are consuming the majority of the water and there is no way to even get them to pay for their usage. Many have grandfathered old school water rights. Meanwhile, they pass idiotic laws like the ban on unsolicited table water in restaurants to pretend like they are doing something.

[JoelBennett]

Funny thing is, most waste water treatment plants I've seen - the water coming out of the waste treatment plant is cleaner than the water removed from the river for drinking (which is then treated).

Wait until people learn that they air they breathe has likely already been breathed by someone else...

[tonyarkles]

Or that it's got particles from other peoples' farts!

[SticksAndBreaks]

Sorry, Sir, but we got to dialyse your blood- there is t-rex urine in it

[bsder]

> Los Angeles could also recycle its water for a much lower cost than desalination, but due to campaigns that claim it is unsanitary (ass to glass, etc) it is not an option politically.

Unsanitary isn't really the problem. Laden with organically active toxins is the problem.

We don't have a good way of dealing with most toxins other than simply diluting them and letting nature break them down.

This is why treatment plants take water from rivers and pump treated water back into the river rather than immediately recycling outflow back to inflow.

[skybrian]

I wouldn't say that water recycling is not an option, just that it's happening slowly. See [1] for example.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/07/16/california-drought-san...

You can