El Paso Bets Its Future on Drinking Recycled Water
The desert border city is building one of the country's first plants to send purified wastewater straight into the tap — no reservoir buffer required.
By AGUACYCLE News Room
El Paso has spent decades preparing for a drier future, cutting per-capita use and building one of the largest inland desalination plants in the world. Its next move is among the boldest in the country: direct potable reuse.
Closing the loop
The city's Advanced Water Purification Facility is designed to treat wastewater to drinking standards and feed it directly into the distribution system. For an inland city with no ocean to desalinate, recycling its own water is the most reliable supply available.
El Paso's combination of conservation, brackish desalination, and direct potable reuse has become a template for arid inland communities nationwide.
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