A city in the Lone Star State of Texas has initiated reuse of treated wastewater, adopting a recycling technology, reported the Associated Press.
Wichita Falls, is reusing millions of gallons of water from the River Road Waste Treatment plant that is been purified as per the norms of government drinking standards. Additional purification is carried out at Cyprus plant.
The Wichita Falls area needs drinking water for 150,000 people, and supply from local reservoirs has crashed from 90 percent capacity. This area is facing a severe drought and outdoor watering is not allowed. Demand for city water has dropped 45 percent, according to city officials.
The West Texas town of Big Spring, has implemented an indirect potable reuse of water earlier this year, filtered through reverse osmosis. The city of Brownwood, has approval for a project to treat 1.5 million gallons of water daily, added the news report.
The city’s reservoirs are supposed to go dry by August 2016, according to the Texas Water Development Board. The drought is the second-worst in Texas after the 1950s Dust Bowl.
The cloud-seeding experiments conducted to stimulate rain have not materialised. The plan to coat surface of reservoirs with a polymer product to minimize evaporation also proved disappointing.