Updated: Today
Topic:

California

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 09:00 PDT

L.A. to serve toilet water

Endorsed by environmentalists, the proposed solution to Southern California's chronic water shortage has some residents feeling queasy.
By J.A. Getzlaff

Swimming pools, movie stars and toilet water -- that's what you'll get if you move to Hollywood these days. According to the Associated Press, officials in Southern California have come up with yet another brilliant idea: recycling toilet water. I'm talking about the stuff you find in the loo, not in your perfume bottle.

The scheme, dubbed the "Toilet to Tap" program, would take water from toilets and run it through a five-year purification process -- to be closely monitored, of course. That water would then be combined with regular groundwater, and eventually would end up in residents' taps.

Officials assert that the $55 million program, which could begin soon, is a cost-effective, safe solution to California's water shortages, and environmentalists back the plan.

David Czamanske of the Sierra Club told Los Angeles' Daily News, "The water that we drink every day has been around for millions of years and circulated through who knows what -- dinosaurs, black bears and panthers. The water becomes purified through natural processes or it can be purified through reclamation processes." But Lori Dinkin, president of the Valley Village Homeowners Association, said, "This is human waste. I'm very uneasy about that."

Bottoms up.

Related Stories

  • Monkeys stone Kenyan to death

    The drought made them do it.
    By J.A. GetzlaffWednesday, Dec 31, 1969

  • Hook, line and sinker

    In New Mexico's Gila River, we fished our waters dry. After that, what was left for us?
    By Renee DespresWednesday, Dec 31, 1969

California in the news

Loading...

Recommended Reads

Californians are sinking themselves
An inflexible right wing is allowing the Golden State to drown in debt. But it's not alone.
By Gary Kamiya, Salon

Everybody must get stoned
A new plan to legalize marijuana in California would create a $1 billion tokin' tax and thousands of green jobs. Now that's a stimulus plan!
By Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon

Gay mecca no more
California used to be a sanctuary for homosexual immigrants worldwide. Now they might go to South Africa, or Maine.
By Sandip Roy, Salon

How the golden state got tarnished
A beginner's guide to California's disastrous Proposition 13.
By Harold Meyerson, The Wall Street Journal

California: a history
This distillation of the author's seven-volume series, "California and the American Dream," is a single-volume tour de force that is superbly researched and beautifully written.
By Kevin Starr

Currently in Salon