This is a June article from the following link:
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcconserv/tuseof6.html
Use of recycled water for drinking questioned
June 2000
U.S. Water News Online
LOS ANGELES -- Some experts are questioning the safety of a city project that will recycle water for drinking.
The criticism comes as the $55 million reclamation project, in the works for years, is awaiting a start-up decision.
City water officials say the water will be safe, but some experts claim that tests for contaminants are unreliable.
``They're always inventing new chemicals for all kinds of purposes, and they end up in the wastewater,'' said water reuse consultant Daniel Okun. ``We don't know how to measure them because they don't tell us what's there.''
Department of Water and Power officials say the water will be sufficiently monitored.
``The water is safe,'' said S. David Freeman, the DWP's general manager.
Recycling systems already operate elsewhere in California, as well as Florida, Virginia, and Texas. Those projects have not led to any reported health problems.
The East Valley Water Reclamation Project, prompted by a need to find alternative water sources, involves reusing some of the water that normally goes into sewage treatment plants for discharge into the ocean.
The wastewater will instead be piped to the Hansen Dam spreading grounds and allowed to percolate down through the soil to recharge groundwater supplies.
The process is designed to purify the water before it is pumped out five years later to supply homes in parts of the San Fernando Valley.
Okun, a retired University of North Carolina environmental engineering professor, said recycling water for human consumption is an unnecessary risk.
Henry Ongerth, a former chief of the state Bureau of Sanitary Engineering and a co-author of state regulations on water reuse, said it is too difficult to determine potential sickness caused by the water because the area's population is large and mobile.
``You can't prove anything,'' Ongerth said. ``It's almost impossible to prove either way, safe or unsafe. It's a matter of degree and a great deal of subjective opinion.''
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