SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — The city of San Francisco could be drawing on a new source of drinking water that is a recycled version of what’s being flushed down toilets.
On Wednesday, KPIX 5 learned where that water is already being served up.
By design, the San Francisco Public Utilities Building is exceedingly green. It opened in 2012 and for years the building has been recycling its wastewater for things like flushing the toilets. Now, that water can be consumed.
“Everything that’s connected in this room to the transparent pipe is part of our research project,” explains Manisha Kothari, Project Manager for the SFPUC.
Down in the bowels of this building that houses some 900 employees, you will find the equipment that treats all of their wastewater.
The rain that falls on the roof and the water that comes out of the bathrooms has all be getting a first wash through the building’s engineered wetlands system that can be seen in the lobby. Now, that water is being carried over the threshold of drinkable.