Florida City to Turn Toilet Water Into Drinking Water

Within three years, Floridians from Miami to Boca Raton could be drinking sewage—albeit nice, treated sewage. Pembroke Pines plans to build a $47 million facility that will pump 7 million gallons of treated sewage a day into the aquifer that supplies Broward, Miami-Dade, and part of Palm Beach County, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

While six other nearby cities also return treated sewage to the water supply, they contribute about the same amount combined that Pembroke Pines will alone. They also send their treated sewage into lakes, fields and wetlands, letting it enter the aquifer over time—Pembroke Pines’ facility will shoot the water straight into the ground. There is an “ick” factor, the city manager concedes. But “the water will be very, very well treated. It’s not as if you would know.” (More water supply stories.)