Citizens up in arms are calling it toilet to tap. The actual term for this is potable reuse. It’s understandable for people to be alarmed and averse, but this has been the norm in many places for years.
Here, in our place of generous rainfall (for now — till we finish killing the local water cycle dead-dead through egregiously bad land management practices), if we would stop wasting water this won’t even be needed, could just be a technological knowhow we keep in reserve for extreme emergency.
We get 49 inches of rainfall a year historically. We can be collecting that rainwater off of every building and using it on the landscape, cutting down on demand for piped water.
We can also be planting appropriate plants instead of thirsty yet useless ornamental landscaping. Also not cutting down forests & wetlands in the first place.
Stop incentivizing the sprawl development with its huge wasteful yards.
Reclaimed water can be part of the equation as well. We should not be using potable water to irrigate ornamental landscaping, period — including lawns.
If we collected rainwater off of every building, it wouldn’t be necessary to use piped-in irrigation (whether with reclaimed water or not) except maybe for extreme drought.
Also part of the problem are people who insist on only drinking bottled water, even though the tapwater is drinkable. (This admonition does not of course include people living in coal camps, fracking areas and so on whose water has been made unsafe to drink.) Some of the strongest opponents of potable reuse are also people who insist on drinking only bottled water even though the tapwater is fine as is, or they could use a filter. This is called being #PartOfTheProblem. (Look up the story of bottled water video on YouTube – part of the story of stuff series by Annie Leonard.)
BTW the whole planet is one big water recycling system. Water is constantly recycled through rainfall, transpiration, percolation into the aquifer, etc. By protecting the natural sponge and rainfall cycle we protect the natural filtration system.
Banning potable reuse won’t fix things. Making it our top priority to restore and protect the natural water cycle will. We should set the bar as high as possible. As a model, I highly recommend the Drinkable Rivers Project.
Imagine all the things you have to have in place for your rivers (and springs) to be drinkable! Sure would solve a lot.
Also, we should all embrace the concept of “sponge cities,” as Singapore and China and so many other places further along the curve have done.
PS. Drought, flood, and fire are three sides of the same coin. It’s all about restoring the water cycle.