Purified T The next frontier of recycled water (and beer)
BY ALLEN BEST 16 • W A T E R E D U C A T I O N C O L O R A D O
wo sips into my Centurion Pilsner at a beer garden in Denver, I hiccupped. Hoppy beers do that to me. This beer was different. The water used for the brew came not from a river, a reservoir, or even a well. Instead, the purified water was sourced from a wastewater treatment plant located along the South Platte River. This simple fact didn’t bother me at all. To be clear, I’m not a risk taker. Never skydived. Never paddled down Class V rapids. Never swallowed goldfish on a dare. But from what I’ve learned about purification processes for reclaimed water, drinking this limited-edition beer was eminently safe. The pilsner, blonde and translucent, like a Coors, looked and tasted like any number of beers made from water freshly obtained from creeks and rivers tumbling from Colorado’s mountain peaks. As for the strawberry-kiwi wheat beer ordered by my companion, I would have nothing of it. “That’s not beer,” I harrumphed, “that’s a fruit bowl. Undrinkable.” I was at Declaration Brewing Co., located in Denver’s Overland neighborhood. The brewery and also a winery, InVINtions, located in Greenwood Village, were part of a regional effort. Water for the one-time specialty beverages produced by both came from the PureWater Colorado Demonstra-
tion Project. In the demonstration that was conducted in spring of 2018, water providers, engineering companies and water reuse advocates collaborated to showcase direct potable reuse treatment technologies. The water was treated using five different processes until it met federal and state drinking water standards, suitable for human consumption. Water always has been recycled. In her 2018 book “Replenish,” Sandra Postel points out that our morning coffee might contain molecules of deep fossil groundwater that the dinosaurs drank. Decades ago Colorado began deliberately recycling water, but only for landscaping purposes. More recent has been indirect potable reuse, where treated wastewater flows through an environmental buffer, such as a river, before being extracted for further treatment to make it suitable for drinking and other domestic uses. Now, Colorado and several other water-stressed states are moving cautiously but deliberately toward direct potable reuse. “Widespread development of potable reuse will be an important facet of closing the future water supply-demand gap,” said the Colorado Water Plan of 2015. Potable reuse most certainly won’t be a cure-all for Colorado’s water shortages. It’s just one potential tool in a kit, applicable for specialized settings. Engineers insist the technology exists to ensure water safe
