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Discussion » Questions » Death and Dying » Is water ever "wasted"? Where does wasted water go?

Is water ever "wasted"? Where does wasted water go?

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Posted - March 25, 2017

Responses


  • 1138
    I wonder that a lot- People have said 'don't waste water' for years, and I have adhered to it... I'm never wasteful, shut the water frequently ...but yet I think that water is recycled no? I believe it is cleaned after a certain time, and released back to ocean/reservoirs... I'm unsure but I think that is what happens (for all the water that is in toilets ).. It would be interesting to find out where our shower water goes as well.
      March 25, 2017 10:03 AM MDT
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  • Grey water ( household waste water NOT containing feces or urine) goes to the same place black water ( waste water from toilets)  and mixes together usually.
    Unless someone uses a grey water recycler to flush toilets and watering lawns/ gardens and a separate black water line to the sewer or septic.
      March 25, 2017 10:24 AM MDT
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  • 2960
    I thought black water was something in Game of Thrones.
      March 25, 2017 2:42 PM MDT
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  • Wouldn't know about that.  Tried watching it and found it so boring.
      March 25, 2017 2:44 PM MDT
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  • 2960
    Yeah. It is overblown and can drag, but I think it is entertaining enough. The best decision they made was to make the seasons only ten episodes unlike Netflix shows that go on for too long.
      March 25, 2017 3:01 PM MDT
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  • Ten seems awfully short, but if it works.

      March 25, 2017 3:03 PM MDT
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  • I've never understood that either. Unless they are referring to water that's already been treated, then it would have to be treated all over again......which they do every day anyway. Now I'm back to not understanding again. 
      March 25, 2017 10:10 AM MDT
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  • It all goes back into the water cycle.
    You're wasting the reserve whatever it may be.   Wasting the aquifer in the ground,   the lake or pond being drawn from, etc..  Plus when treatment plants are overwhelmed with black and grey waters, they usually discharge it untreated and that harms the the clean water sources.   Even treated sewer water still has micronutrients and chemicals left in it and does harm when discharged. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 25, 2017 3:09 PM MDT
      March 25, 2017 10:21 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    Absolutely correct. Here where I live we are at the head of a river, it starts  small... the sewage plant near me was known to be causing eutrophication for 10 miles downstream. In other words, nutrient pollution so great that it destroys wildlife and life in the stream.  This was in 2001, when I researched it - now years on we have way more houses, way more people using water and creating waste water... so...environmental limits.
      March 25, 2017 3:12 PM MDT
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  • 6477
    Well technically yea it's wasted...I can't remember the mechanics and I think most people aren't aware that it gets wasted...and as such it doesn't but it does get *tied* up in ways that make it  unavailable to use or it can be made *unusable*
    This was interesting ....

    http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2010/10/water_water_everywhere.html
      March 25, 2017 10:48 AM MDT
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  • 44173
    Water isn't wasted. It is constantly being cycled through the water cycle. It doesn't matter where it is stored at any given moment...be it in a treatment plant or anywhere else. There are certain chemical processes we perform that splits the hydrogen and oxygen and there are others that combine them. Right now you might be drinking Dinosaur pee.
      March 25, 2017 11:59 AM MDT
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  • 7280
    http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2010/10/water_water_everywhere.html
      March 25, 2017 2:48 PM MDT
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  • 6477
    Tee hee snap - we linked to the same article - great minds think alike
      March 25, 2017 3:14 PM MDT
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  • 7280
    I see you also vett your links---thumps up
      March 26, 2017 2:18 PM MDT
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  • Like bong water?
      March 25, 2017 3:58 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    i dont think so cause people drink it
      March 26, 2017 5:51 PM MDT
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  • 3680
    A better way to regard water as "wasted" might be to differentiate between "waste" as in "used" - genuinely in washing, laundry, baths, lavatories, industrial processing  etc - and wasted in terms of the energy needed to clean and deliver water that is then lost in vanity irrigation (lawns in deserts and the like), leaks in the distribution pipes and dripping taps, and the like. The latter "waste" is thus not of the water itself.

    As for where it goes, ultimately back to the sea even if some is always temporarily locked up in living organisms and other natural chemical compounds. The water on Earth now has been here since the Solar System and our own planet formed, and it's not going to go away in a hurry!
      April 1, 2017 4:09 PM MDT
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