I wonder how Wichita Falls leaders took being the second headline down, center column, all weekend and on Monday morning, on the nation’s number-one news aggregator The Drudge Report? Drudge almost never publishes news instead, it’s his selection and British-tabloid-style headline writing that makes the site work so well.
I guessed immediately that Wichita Falls was the city to which the Drudge headline “TX City to Re-Use Sewage for Drinking Water…” referred. The link was to an Associated Press story penned by our friend Betsy Blaney appearing in the San Antonio Express-News which used a bit more sedate, or boring, headline: “North Texas city awaits word on wastewater re-use”.
Big Spring has already been down this road but didn’t quite make such a prominent position on The Drudge Report. El Paso treats waste water and re-mixes it with that city’s deep aquifer water for re-use and many similar systems, whether mechanical or largely natural by stream release and later recapture, are in use.
The yuck- or ick-factor is quite high with water re-use but frankly, H2O is H2O no matter it’s source. Millions of Texans buy and drink bottled water sourced from the very municipal systems they won’t drink from the tap for pennies, but love to drink from a bottle for dimes. Much water preference is largely psychological and the ick-factor goes away once the cause is out of focus.
In arid regions it makes all sense for large cities to re-use waste water if such can be done for a reasonable price. The question I have is what will trump those little signs when you enter towns that say “Superior Public Water System”? Will Big Spring and The Falls be the first to have signs reading “Royal Flush Public Water System?”
Does “Royal Flush” trump “Superior” public water systems?
I guessed immediately that Wichita Falls was the city to which the Drudge headline “TX City to Re-Use Sewage for Drinking Water…” referred. The link was to an Associated Press story penned by our friend Betsy Blaney appearing in the San Antonio Express-News which used a bit more sedate, or boring, headline: “North Texas city awaits word on wastewater re-use”.
Big Spring has already been down this road but didn’t quite make such a prominent position on The Drudge Report. El Paso treats waste water and re-mixes it with that city’s deep aquifer water for re-use and many similar systems, whether mechanical or largely natural by stream release and later recapture, are in use.
The yuck- or ick-factor is quite high with water re-use but frankly, H2O is H2O no matter it’s source. Millions of Texans buy and drink bottled water sourced from the very municipal systems they won’t drink from the tap for pennies, but love to drink from a bottle for dimes. Much water preference is largely psychological and the ick-factor goes away once the cause is out of focus.
In arid regions it makes all sense for large cities to re-use waste water if such can be done for a reasonable price. The question I have is what will trump those little signs when you enter towns that say “Superior Public Water System”? Will Big Spring and The Falls be the first to have signs reading “Royal Flush Public Water System?”