San Francisco’s first onsite greywater reuse project reveals the future of urban water
Facing the worst Western drought in 1,200 years, San Francisco is the first city in the nation to mandate onsite water reuse for new buildings above 100,000 gross square feet. The crucial word here is “onsite.” In contrast to a typical building, where wastewater flows from the building into a network of underground pipes to the city’s centralized treatment plant, each building with onsite water reuse contains a small wastewater treatment system. This system purifies wastewater and directs it toward non-potable applications including toilet flushing, irrigation, laundry, and cooling towers. By using recycled water for non-potable purposes, buildings with onsite water reuse reduce their potable water use by up to 95% In residential high-rises, this can translate to millions of gallons of water — and hundreds of thousands of dollars – saved per year.
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