How can they help prevent water shortages?
Waste water treatment plants basically take sewage water and cleans them for either reuse or to be put back into water bodies. This method will only prevent water shortages if the water is reused for human drinking. Gallons of water is thrown back into water bodies when it could be used for human consumption.
The reason why this isn't likely in Southern California is because people fear that the water may not actually be clean when in reality, it is cleaner than most tap water systems. In addition, Southern California receives all of the runoff water from north and central California, which means that we still get reused water from them. So what is the better option? Getting reused water and throwing out reusable water or using both to increase the amount of drinkable water that we have to prevent water shortages and the rise of a water crisis.
The reason why this isn't likely in Southern California is because people fear that the water may not actually be clean when in reality, it is cleaner than most tap water systems. In addition, Southern California receives all of the runoff water from north and central California, which means that we still get reused water from them. So what is the better option? Getting reused water and throwing out reusable water or using both to increase the amount of drinkable water that we have to prevent water shortages and the rise of a water crisis.
How do waste water treatment plants work?
There are 4 main stages for water treatment...
- Preliminary Treatment: rough solids (rocks, plastics, etc.) and grit (sand & gravel) are screened out of waste water and usually sent to a landfill.
- Primary Treatment: removes crude solids, grease, oil, and fat. Then waste water sits in tanks for several hours. While it sits, heavy solids sink to the bottom and become a thick slurry called primary sludge. Usually, both the primary sludge and skimmed off substances are taken to a solids treatment processing plant.
- Secondary Treatment: also know as Biological treatment, removes oxygen-demanding organic substances. Waste water is then clarified from gravity separating treated liquid from grown bacterial cells. Bacteria and sludge is either processed onsite or transported to a separate solids treatment facility.
- Tertiary Treatment: treats effluent to remove nitrogen, phosphorus, and particles/microbes and to kill/disable disease-causing organisms and viruses. After this treatment, the clean water can be reused or dumped back into the ocean.