三国杀刘协离间:美国人准备好开始喝他们（处理过的）厕所用水了么？

Tests show it's impressively clean and safe. And good enough for Texans who are drinking it.

化验结果表明，处理过的厕所用水令人印象深刻地干净、安全，而且好的足够让得克萨斯人喝它。

by Elizabeth Svoboda

From the November 2011 issue; published online October 28, 2011

出自2011年11月期刊；2011年10月28日在线出版

As the American Southwest reels from one of the worst droughts on record, some parched communities are opting for a once-unthinkable conservation measure: extracting drinking water from urine and other liquid waste. The small Texas city of Big Spring is the latest to take the plunge, announcing that late next year it will begin adding 2 million gallons of recycled water daily to the drinking supply. San Diego recently began a pilot project of its own, hoping to make believers of the one-third of its population who oppose or are unsure about the technique.

While so-called toilet-to-tap ventures certainly sound unpleasant, skeptical citizens should take heed of the rigorous filtration process that makes recycled wastewater as safe to drink as conventional tap water. “Water treatment involves many steps between commode and faucet,” says Mike Markus, an environmental engineer at the Orange County Water District in California, which has been processing liquid sewage into drinking water since 2008.

而称为“厕所到水龙头”的冒险活动听起来肯定不太令人开心，持怀疑态度的居民应该对使回收废水变成安全的像传统自来水一样可以饮用的过滤步骤要非常小心翼翼。“在抽水马桶和水龙头之间的水处理包括很多步骤，”加州橙县水区的环境工程师麦克?马克斯说。自2008年以来，该区就已经将液体污水加工成饮用水了。

由我存照片有限公司提供图片

Sewer water undergoes initial cleansing at a sanitation plant to remove solid waste and add beneficial bacteria that break down sludge. A recycling facility then forces the water through holes in tiny, strawlike fibers. The water that makes it to the hollow center of the fibers, now freed of suspended solids and microorganisms, gets propelled through even finer pores in another membrane, which traps dissolved chemicals. A dab of hydrogen peroxide and a flash of ultraviolet light serve as the final sterilizing gatekeepers before the water reenters potable supplies. “We test the water for over 400 compounds—pharmaceuticals, endocrine-disruptor chemicals—and we’ve never had a violation,” Markus says.

下水道的水在卫生处理厂经受最初的清理，清除固体废物，添加有益的细菌分解处理过的人类废物。然后，一个回收设备迫使这些水穿过微小的像稻管一样的纤维上的小洞。到了这些纤维空心的中心的水现在是没有了悬浮的固体和微生物的水。这些水被推进，甚至穿过另一个薄膜上更细的毛孔。这个薄膜使溶解的化学物质圈在这个地方而无法离开。在这些水重新进入安全饮用的供水系统之前，作为最后的消毒系统是一小点过氧化氢和闪现紫外光线。“我们测试了400多个院落的水——药物，内分泌干扰化学物质——而我们从来没有出现一次超标现象，”马克斯说。

So if toilet-to-tap has such a sparkling safety record, why haven’t more communities bought in? Money is one issue. Orange County’s recycling facility costs about $27 million per year to operate. But the bigger obstacle may be psychological. Fortunately, a little education can change minds quickly. “When we offer people a taste, they say, ‘This tastes like water,’?” he says. “I see that a lot: skepticism followed by conversion.”

因此，如果 “厕所到水龙头”有如此一个卓越的安全记录，为什么没有更多的社区相信这个想法呢？资金是一个问题。橙县的回收设备每年需要花费二千七百万美元来运作。但更大的障碍可能是心里上的。幸运地是，对人们进行一点思想上的教育可以很快改变这种状况。“当我们向人们提供水品尝时，他们说，‘这味道像水一样，’”他说。“我看到很多这种现象：怀疑总是被改变。”