Due to the lack of drinking water resulting from California’s drought, San Diego has decided to convert sewer water into drinking water. According to Fox News, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously to spend $2.5 billion to recycle wastewater. Consequently, the bad publicity resulting from toilet-to-tap has lead to a yuck factor.

San Diego gets most of its water supply from the Colorado River and Orange County. Apparently, a poll taken by the San Diego Water Authority indicates most people embrace the idea of recycled sewer water. Obviously a result of droughts being a regular occurrence in California. Fox News also points out that waste water conversion has been embraced by other Golden State communities:

The Orange County Water District, which serves 2.4 million people in California, plans to boost production of recycled water next year from 70 million gallons to 100 million gallons a day. It has reused wastewater for drinking since 2008 through treatment that includes sending water through ground basins.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District, which serves 1.8 million people in the San Francisco Bay area, decided in September to pursue construction of facilities that it says could lead to turning wastewater into drinking water for Sunnyvale and western Santa Clara County.

The drought is the result of California refusing to upgrade its water delivery infrastructure. The last time the state did so was during the 1980’s and as a result, gross ideas like recycling waste water are used. Fortunately, the state’s voters approved a $7.5 billion bond program to pay for enhancements. The environmentalists had a hand in the defeat of previous water system upgrades and are just as opposed to the upgrades now like they were then.