I love you North East Ohio Regional Sewer District
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
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Woah, they take wastewater and turn it into drinking water? Is that common? I would have thought it would be cost prohibitive.
We’re all drinking recycled dinosaur piss from millions of years ago.
We are, but even simply desalinating water is very expensive last I heard. To turn sewage into drinking water sounds like it would be even more expensive. I know they drink recycled pee on the ISS but that's cheaper than launching water up all the time.
It's actually way easier to treat sewage than it is to desalinate water: https://www.waterandwastewater.com/how-is-desalination-different-from-water-reclamation/
Interesting! They make a good point that you normally have most of the infrastructure needed because you're already treating wastewater. They mention a couple of additional things thatmight happen before reintroducing into the drinking water system but all in all it does sound pretty feasible!
Now I know what to search for, I found this. It seems it's not that common yet but there is growing interest in it. Interestingly Oregon isn't mentioned.
Reminds me of all the signs around sprinklers at my university in California. Do not drink. Agua reclamada!