When a water shortage comes, toilet-to-tap water will be a solution

Some may think toilets have a “magic flush.” One does their business, flushes the toilet and the wastewater just disappears. That’s how much people would like to think about it because most wouldn’t want to know more about what happens to “poop water” once it’s flushed.

The animosity toward wastewater explains the strong opposition to a recently proposed bill to inject treated wastewater into the Floridan Aquifer to address an inevitable Florida water shortage. In response to receiving more than 3,000 petition signatures against the proposal, Gov. Rick Scott rejected the bill last Friday. Although Gov. Scott avoided the possible consequences of injecting chemically treated water into the ground, some arguments against the “toilet-to-tap bill” stem from mentalities that will have to change in the near future.

A clear concept of the Floridan Aquifer eludes most, not because of its complexity or size, but because we cannot physically see it. It’s hard for many to imagine that fresh water runs 1,000-feet thick and 2,000 feet below us. Nevertheless, the Floridan Aquifer supplies water to the state’s precious ecosystems and provides drinking water to more than 90 percent of people in northeast and east-central Florida.

Injecting wastewater into the ground would basically use the aquifer system as a filter. By flowing through pore space, the injected water would be cleaned further and increase the overall groundwater supply. For the same reasons people have to replace their Brita filters, environmentalists were concerned with the possibility of the buildup of treated chemicals in pore spaces that would decrease flow and potentially pollute groundwater.

Unlike sink filters, humans can’t just dig up the state’s aquifer system when Mother Nature’s orange light, in the form of polluted ecosystems, tells us the filter needs to be replaced. Aquifer damage from injected water would be irreversible.

Those against the proposed bill were correct to denounce the proposal to protect the health of the Floridan Aquifer, but some opposition originated from the thought of drinking water that was once used in toilets. People find the idea of reusing wastewater hard to swallow, no matter the level of treatment or safety. However, as Florida’s population continues to grow while groundwater supply does not, toilet-to-tap water seems inevitable.

Orange County, California, serves as the perfect example for what may come to Florida. With an extreme water shortage already in California, government officials built the largest state-of-the-art potable reuse facility in the world, enough to provide drinking water to 850,000 people every year. Wastewater goes through a three-step purifying process that cleans the water to meet all federal and state drinking water quality standards.

Officials have had a difficult time in convincing people to drink the water, but the dependable supply of wastewater will breed necessity over preference. Potable reuse is and will continue to be the largest source of new water supplies for California. As climate change and a growing population puts further strain on the nation’s most populous state, used toilet water provides a reliable source of water to sustain human life.

Florida should begin investing in potable reuse facilities. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Florida is among 14 states that will experience “high risk” water shortage by 2050. Potable reuse can delay a Florida water shortage without having run the risk of polluting the Floridan aquifer system. Although drinking treated wastewater may not be ideal to some, it is better than a future without drinking water.

Treated wastewater should never be directly injected into the Floridan Aquifer, but there will come a day when we will drink the water that was once in our toilet.

Joshua Udvardy is a UF environmental engineering junior. His column focuses on science.