Texas Is Changing Its Drinking Water
Several communities in Texas are exploring ways to turn wastewater into drinking water, and El Paso is set to open the first facility in the United States to treat wastewater for direct reuse.
Newsweek reached out to El Paso Water via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Different parts of Texas have long struggled with water supply, including the desert city of El Paso, which receives less than nine inches of rain a year.
Successfully reusing wastewater could change things for these communities and others that follow suit—although some have concerns about the process.
What To Know
The construction of El Paso’s Pure Water Center began last Thursday, and places from Amarillo to Dripping Springs have already filed plans for direct potable use with the Texas Water Development Board, Inside Climate News reported.
Meanwhile, communities from the Panhandle to the Hill Country are reportedly considering opening facilities.
El Paso’s Pure Water Center will be the first direct-to-distribution reuse facility in the country.
El Paso Water has been working on this project since 2016, when it began a pilot study to test the direct potable reuse of sewage and other wastewater using a four-step treatment process.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reviewed this data and approved the construction of the Pure Water Center in October 2024. The center will deliver 10 million gallons of purified water from the city’s wastewater system into its drinking water supply daily.
How Would It Work?
The facility would start with treated wastewater from the Roberto Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant in El Paso, which would go through a multiple-barrier system, according to Inside Climate News.
Water molecules would be separated from other substances through reverse osmosis. Then, hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet light would kill bacteria in the water before activated carbon would absorb chemicals or compounds. Finally, chlorine would be used to disinfect the water.
TCEQ has required an online monitoring system with alarms and automatic shutdown capability.
El Paso Water’s Vice President of Operations, Gilbert Trejo, said: “Before we start to break any type of threshold that would worry us, we will know well in advance so that we can take action.”
“The good thing is that our multiple barrier approach to remove viruses, pathogens and any of these emerging constituents of concern is in place,” Trejo added. “It’s a very robust system.”
What People Are Saying
El Paso Water’s Vice President of Operations, Gilbert Trejo, said Thursday during the plant’s groundbreaking: “El Paso, Texas, is the center of the universe in water recycling right now.”
Nonprofit Food & Water Watch, which has campaigned against “toilet-to-tap” projects, said in 2023: “The advanced treatment technology used for toilet-to-tap is new, and we don’t have long-term data to help plan and lower the risks. In fact, many of the risks are potentially unquantifiable.”
What Happens Next
El Paso’s Pure Water Center is set to be operational by 2028. The timeline and progress of any other facilities are yet to be seen.