Due to Drought, Big Spring Texas Is Drinking Recycled Pee Water

Illustration. Image source: ohsunews.com

The drought in Texas is getting so bad that Big Spring, Texas will turn to recycling sewage water.

While drinking your own urine is a pretty disgusting idea for most of us, one of the worst droughts in Texas history is forcing municipal water managers to do what was once unthinkable.

Water for the town’s 27,000 residents comes through the Colorado River Municipal Water District, which has broken ground on a plant to capture treated wastewater for recycling.

“We’re taking treated effluent (wastewater), normally discharged into a creek, and blending it with (traditionally supplied potable) water,” district manager John Grant told Discovery News.

In essence, the system speeds up what would naturally occur with the flow of discharged water through wetlands, with more pristine results, Grant added.

So, yeah, it’s all safe, healthy and up to code, but that’s still pee water if you think about it. Sometimes it’s better not to know…