Koichi Wakata (left), space station commander Gennady Padalka (center), and Michael Barratt (right) take ceremonial sips of recycled urine in a key milestone for the lab complex. (Photo courtesy of NASA TV)
NASA has technology light years ahead of what’s available to the rest of us. Advanced water recycling is
one of them. For years, astronauts have collected and recycled sweat and even water vapor. Shawn Allee
looks at NASA’s latest water recycling technology and whether anything like it is already on Planet Earth:
Transcript
NASA has technology light years ahead of what’s available to the rest of us. Advanced water recycling is
one of them. For years, astronauts have collected and recycled sweat and even water vapor. Shawn Allee
looks at NASA’s latest water recycling technology and whether anything like it is already on Planet Earth:
A press conference between NASA headquarters and the International Space Station got some attention
recently.
It was about making drinkable water from astronauts’ urine.
Headquarters: “The Expedition 19 crew inaugurating the use of the water recovery system to
produce recycled, purified water.”
NASA figures sending water into space wastes rocket fuel.
Why pay good money, if you can just reuse water that comes out of astronauts’ bodies?
Astronauts have recycled other fluid, but urine was kinda the final frontier.
Astronaut: “Everybody’s talked about recycling water in a closed-loop system, but nobody’s ever
done it before. So, we’re going to be drinking yesterday’s coffee frequently up here, and happy to do
it.”
Three astronauts hold up their drink pouches.
Astronaut: “And, here we go. Here’s to everybody who made this happen.”
Group: “Cheers.” (laughter)
Headquarters: “That’s looks really, really good from down here. Um…”
For all the jokes cracked in space, water’s a serious problem down here on Earth.
Is anyone recycling urine like they are on the space station? Depends on how you cut it.
NASA’s system is a closed loop: water out, urine in, water out.
Similar technology’s used during some natural disasters, and the country of Singapore gets close.
Singapore recycles sewage water but it’s sent to reservoirs where it’s diluted.
How far does America get with recycled water? Public service announcements hint at who’s furthest
along.
“Southern California is getting drier. Go to bewaterwise.com. Find out how your community is
dealing with mandatory conservation.”
For decades, California utilities have used recycled waste water to spruce up landscaping and golf courses –
but you’re not allowed to drink it.
Orange County goes a tad further. It replenishes an underground aquifer with recycled water. The utility
draws water out of that aquifer.
So, it’s a kind of water recycling – more like Singapore’s diluted variety than NASA’s fully-closed loop.
According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency – no city in America has astronaut-style water
recycling.
But, some water utility managers predict some city will.
“It’s a non-issue. From purely a perception standpoint, Oh my god you’re making
me drink toilet water. You know, get over it, because you’ve been doing it anyhow.”
That’s Frank Jaeger. He runs the water system in Parker, a Denver suburb.
He says most water systems are more like Singapore’s and Orange County’s than you might think.
“I was in New Orleans, and I had the chance to go through their treatment process. And, they
pointed out that ten years in a row they had won the drinking water award for turbidity, taste, odor –
and that water going down the Mississippi had been through 12 stomachs by the time it had gotten to
New Orleans. They mix it with a little more scotch than we do, but they drink it.”
Jaeger says, think of the advantages a full water recycling system would have.
Some cities would save energy since they’d pump water shorter distances. And you’d get a consistent
supply of water, since you can count on people bathing and flushing on a regular basis.
“It is silly, in this day and age, to be worried about these sorts of things – especially
here in the United States, where we have such good wonderful treatment
processes.”
There’s no federal regulation that specifically prohibits full toilet-to-tap water recycling.
So, Jaeger says, someday, some politically brave local government will move forward.
Just not his.
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.