Direct Potable Reuse May Hit Oklahoma

Direct potable resuse may be coming to the Sooner State. 

As drought conditions persist in Oklahoma, some communities are advocating for the adoption of the wastewater reuse strategies that have proved effective in Texas and other states, according to News9. 

Oklahoma officials are "currently conducting studies and focus groups to discuss allowing recycled water in drinking water in Oklahoma," the report said. 

In Norman, OK, residents rely on Lake Thunderbird for their water. "The lake is better now, but just a few months of dry weather drastically lowers lake levels," the report said. 

Recycling sewage water could be an ideal solution, according to Norman utilities director Ken Komiske. 

"We're not inventing something," he said. "We just want to incorporate our version of what we think would be good for Oklahoma."

But the idea of reusing wastewater is off-putting to some Oklahoma residents, who are proud of the water quality in their state. 

As Water Online previously reported, Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust’s tap water was crowned “Best of the Best” this year at an American Water Works Association conference. 

Selling the idea to the public is a psychological challenge, not an engineering challenge, NPR reported. 

"Water managers need to rewrite the history of the water to help people forget the part about sewage," according to Brent Haddad of the University of California.

Funneling recycled water back through nature helps ease people's minds, the report said. 

"A river is something that's comforting to people," Haddad told NPR. "And we don't have to think anymore that it was passing through a city. We just begin the history of that water in the river itself."

Water shortages became so dire in Oklahoma this year that a school had to shut its doors due to the water crisis, the Examiner reported. 

The state had a long hot summer. The Associated Press reported: "More than 64 temperature records were broken in Oklahoma during a scorching July, and additional ones fell across the state Wednesday on the first day of August, according to the National Climatic Data Center."

For previous reporting from Water Online about reusing wastewater—including the difference between direct potable reuse and indirect potable reuse—click here.

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