NPR reports that in Oregon, an organization called Clean Water Services, described on its website as a "water resources management utility committed to protecting water resources in the Tualatin River Watershed," has come up with a new way to save water.
It wants to turn purified sewage water into beer.
This isn't likely to happen anytime soon. The story says that Clean Water Services has to get permission from the state before it can even start testing the concept, which calls for a three- step process involving ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis and enhanced oxidation to make the water pure enough to turn into beer.
And, of course, there is the question of what beer made from purified sewage water will taste like ... though concerns about the scarcity of water, especially if a predicted decades-long megadrought affecting the Central Plains and the Southwest come to fruition, makes the possibility somewhat more appetizing.
If appetizing is the right word.
It wants to turn purified sewage water into beer.
This isn't likely to happen anytime soon. The story says that Clean Water Services has to get permission from the state before it can even start testing the concept, which calls for a three- step process involving ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis and enhanced oxidation to make the water pure enough to turn into beer.
And, of course, there is the question of what beer made from purified sewage water will taste like ... though concerns about the scarcity of water, especially if a predicted decades-long megadrought affecting the Central Plains and the Southwest come to fruition, makes the possibility somewhat more appetizing.
If appetizing is the right word.
- KC's View:
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To be honest, I've tasted beer that well could've been made from purified sewage water. (It was back in college. Desperate times require desperate measures.) But I'm not sure it actually was made from purified sewage water.
This is one of those cases where I think truth in labeling is going to be absolutely necessary. And I'm also pretty sure that this is one of the cases in which the label will, in fact, cause me to choose a different product. There must be other places where we can cut back on water.
We could stop watering the Brussels sprout and beet crops, for example. I don't like 'em, so let's stop watering them. (I grant you that this is a highly subjective, "if I were king" sort of reaction.)
But I do think that if there's gonna be a megadrought, we're going to need lots of good, cold beer to get through it. So let's not be shortsighted in our choices.
