Waste Water

Penticton Waste-Water Treatment Plant on Waterloo Rd ( a most appropriate name! )

Singapore sells bottled water made from their waste water!

Our Okanagan Lake is a fairly pure water source for our taps.

Sign on the pump house on Okanagan Lake....

Dealing with what's left after we use our fresh drinking water is something else. In Penticton the purified water goes into the Okanagan River and on to the Pacific Ocean, and the remaining solids are composted for industrial use. (You can make out a pile of solids in the photo at the top if you enlarge it by clicking on it.) The processes are quite complicated because of things like industrial contamination and salt used on our roads. However in some places like Okotoks in Alberta, and in Singapore, the purification of used water is of such high quality, drinkable water is the end-product, thus relieving demands on reservoirs.
The use of bottled drinking water is another subject which is quite contentious, as the quality of the water used is sometimes questionable, and the disposal of the plastic bottles is polluting our world...