Djakhangir Zakhidov for The Texas TribuneWastewater being
treated at a plant in Fort Worth. While its reuse in industry
and on golf courses is common, scientists say that recycling
will also be crucial to the drinking supply someday. Each day,
American municipalities discharge treated wastewater back into
natural sources at a rate that would fill an empty Lake
Champlain within six months. Growing pressure on water supplies
and calls for updating the ancient subterranean piping
infrastructure have brought new scrutiny to this step in the
treatment process, which is labeled wasteful and unnecessary by
a spectrum of voices. “As the world enters the 21st century, the
human community finds itself searching for new paradigms for
water supply and management,” says a report released this month
by the Water Science and Technology Board of the National
Research Council, a division of the National Academy of
Sciences. The report investigates the potential for establishing
a more resilient national water supply through t