Inside a water treatment plant in north Reno, Nev., on a recent Wednesday, recycled wastewater was running beneath a floor grate inside a small testing room. Inside the space is a system of serpentine-like PVC pipes with 19 different ports, used to test water samples at different intervals.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about halfway through the treatment process at the wastewater facility,鈥� said Lydia Teel, an engineer with the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, or TMWA, which serves about 440,000 people in the greater Reno area. 鈥淪o, it鈥檚 clean, but there鈥檚 still some color, there鈥檚 bacteria in it, some solids.鈥�
Teel spearheads a demonstration project called , an effort to show that the region can recycle the water that flushes down people鈥檚 toilets and shower drains and 鈥� eventually 鈥� turn it back into clean, pure drinking water flowing from faucets, effectively creating a new water resource. The project is a collaboration between TMWA, the cities of Reno and Sparks, the University of Nevada, Reno, Washoe County, and the Western Regional Water Commission.
The Reno area doesn鈥檛 have a history of threatened water supplies, and historic snowfall this past winter in Nevada and across parts of the Mountain West. But that could shift quickly with climate change.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know if we would have years-long droughts,鈥� Teel said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know if there could be a catastrophic fire on the Truckee River where the quality is decreased for a period of time.鈥�
Teel said many advanced purified water facilities are in coastal communities and use a technology called reverse osmosis. But that process, she noted, generates brine that gets sent to the ocean.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have that luxury here 鈥� we wouldn鈥檛 know what to do with the brine,鈥� she explained.
That鈥檚 why Teel and her colleagues tried a new technology that uses . After years of tests beginning in 2017, they've proven their recycled wastewater meets national and state safe drinking water standards.
Now, project leaders are designing a large-scale facility that鈥檚 scheduled to break ground next year. Teel said the facility will cost about $120 million to build, and 鈥渁 few million more鈥� to operate each year.
鈥淧eople are watching us because we are an inland community,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檙e really breaking ground as one of the first communities in the nation to be looking at technology like this.鈥�
Similar projects are planned in the fast-growing Mountain West. This year, Colorado to adopt regulations for direct potable reuse, the process of treating wastewater and sending it to people鈥檚 taps without an environmental buffer like ground or surface water.
The city of South Jordan, Utah, is to safe drinking levels. Officials say it鈥檚 for demonstration and education only, and to find out if that鈥檇 be a viable option in the future, if needed.
Reno鈥檚 treated water won鈥檛 hit people鈥檚 taps right away. First, the water will be monitored and used to irrigate nearby alfalfa fields. A year later, it鈥檒l be injected into the groundwater, stored for a few years, extracted, and tested some more.
鈥淭hen when we all feel comfortable, the public feels comfortable, then we can open the door of providing it to the public for potable use,鈥� Teel said.
Making consumers feel comfortable might be the biggest hurdle, Teel admitted. That鈥檚 why the project team is demonstrating its purification system at community events, using the inside of a semi-trailer as a mobile treatment lab.
That can have a big impact on the public, said Mark Millan, founder of Data Instincts, which does public outreach for recycled water projects across the West, including OneWater Nevada.
鈥淲hen people start to really understand the purification process, they almost think, 鈥極h, gosh, I鈥檇 rather have this water than bottled water because it is so clean,'鈥� Millan said.
Drinking recycled wastewater is nothing new. Newsha Ajami, chief development officer for research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, often reminds people that it鈥檚 been done for decades, starting with astronauts in space.
鈥淲hat happens in the spaceships is they recycle their urine and other water they use and drink it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, the technology has been there for a long time.鈥�
Ajami said purification projects will become even more important in the future, especially in the arid West where supplies can run dry.
鈥淭he more we can do this at every scale, the less we need to take out of the environment,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n that way, we can also protect our ecosystem. So, I would say, reuse and recycling at every scale is going to be part of our resilient water resilience portfolio in the future.鈥�
Back at the testing room in Reno, Teel said their three pilot trailers were producing more than 14,000 gallons of advanced purified water per day. The full-scale plant will produce up to 2 million a day. To put that into context, Reno area residents use more than 100 million gallons of water daily in the summertime, according to Teel.
鈥淭o have another resource as a part of our drinking water in this area is huge,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou never know what鈥檚 in the future, and it鈥檚 just another drop in the bucket for us.鈥�
Teel said the Reno area could have underground storage of waste-turned-clean drinking water as early as 2029.
As a note of disclosure, Truckee Meadows Water Authority is a business sponsor of KUNR.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 糖心vlog传媒 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .
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