Who just flushed?

When you flush in Santa Ana, California, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that super filters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

Next time I pass the sewage treatment plant on Orangeburg Road, I might pause and think about that glass of water I had this morning. And for you bottled water lovers that practice that oh so trendy practice of walking around downtown Charleston with a purchased bottle of water in hand, you might pause to think about the fact that most bottled water does not come from some mountain spring but rather from retreated tap water. Then we might all start thinking about, who just flushed?