2023-08-08 13:04:00
San Francisco It looks like beer, froths and bubbles like beer, and testers say it tastes like beer too. A light, light blond made in the Kolsch style – by a real brewery. The special thing about it: Selling this beer would still be illegal at the moment.
Something’s brewing in California. San Francisco-based company Epic Onewater has filled several thousand cans of it. This was only possible with a special permit, the manufacturer of water treatment systems is not allowed to market the drink commercially. That should never have been the idea, instead it’s about the technology that Epic Onewater does business with.
Because the purified water for the brewing process comes from a high-rise basement in San Francisco. And despite the highest standards, treated wastewater may not be used directly as drinking water according to the law. They must first flow into a reservoir before it goes into the public drinking water system. An expensive and lengthy detour, especially in drought-stricken California.
But the regulations for purified “grey water” are set to change soon. The term refers to all household wastewater that is not contaminated with faeces or dangerous chemicals – i.e. water from showers, bathtubs, dishwashers or washing machines. Experts call the rest of the wastewater “black water” and it has to be cleaned in large sewage treatment plants.
For California gray water there is a draft that allows for the direct discharge of highly treated service water into the drinking water systems of cities and communities would allow. The State Water Resources Control Board is required by law to vote on this by the end of the year. Other states affected by drought, such as Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, are also working on corresponding laws.
Buildings in San Francisco must use wastewater
Experts estimate that up to 50 percent of the daily wastewater from households can be reused more easily this way. And since the costs of water treatment are increasing year after year, the use of gray water is also financially worthwhile. In fact, the city of San Francisco now requires all new buildings with more than 9,000 square feet of residential or office space to have gray water treatment plants. Modern systems do not need more space than a few car parking spaces and cost between a few hundred thousand and a few million dollars.
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The next step would be to use the purified water on-site for more than sprinkling lawns or flushing toilets – beer, for example. The water for the sample brew comes from the sewage pipes of Fifteen Fifty, a new 40-story high-rise in San Francisco’s Mission District with luxury apartments. Rents for a two-bedroom apartment start at just under $5,000 a month.
Cleaning and filtering technologies supplied by Epic Onewater are used. First a biological treatment and removal of solids, then several stages of filtration, disinfection by ultraviolet radiation, treatment with ozone and chlorine.
Water bottling in the USA
Many states have been suffering from extreme drought for years.
(Foto: Bloomberg)
The potential is huge: Homes and offices use about 14 percent of all drinking water worldwide, Aaron Tartakovsky, CEO and co-founder of Epic Onewater, told CNN. “And virtually none of it recycles that water. We want to change that.” However, the cleaning technologies should primarily be considered for new buildings, because hardly any existing building has separate drains for gray and black water. And hardly any property owner would want to go through the effort of ripping up walls and floors for a conversion.
Purify waste water in your own basement
Nevertheless, just as solar modules have partially brought electricity generation from coal, gas and oil power plants back into the home, Tartakovsky wants to treat water again at the point of consumption. So far, the World Health Organization has largely ruled out the use of gray water. However, with the rapid development of technologies and the increasing demand for fresh and drinking water, the WHO is discussing a revision of its recommendations, which have been in force since 2006.
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In any case, the policy in California has already been determined. “Water recycling,” says California Governor Gavin Newsom, “is like finding new water instead of just watching it run out.” His goal by 2030: to recycle one billion cubic meters of water a year. By 2040, almost 1.8 billion cubic meters will fill up California’s gigantic underground water reservoirs. They have been pumped dry by agriculture, cities and businesses for decades and have reached alarming lows.
A large test facility already exists. The “Pure Water Southern California Demonstration Plant” started operations in 2019 and purifies pretreated water so that it can flow directly back into the drinking water supply. The existing technologies here run on an industrial scale and are intended to bring 570 million liters to drinking water quality every day in regular operation. That would be enough for a good 500,000 households in notoriously water-scarce Los Angeles.
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