(Image credit: Connected)
San Francisco-based water reuse technology company Epic Cleantec announced that Fifteen Fifty – the luxury residential building in San Francisco by Related California, hosts the city’s first approved and operational greywater reuse system. Approved and operated by Epic, the system can recycle up to 7,500 gallons of gray water per day, or 2.5 million gallons per year.
According to Greywater Action, gray water is gently used water from sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines.
Epic Cleantec’s on-site water reuse approach captures and treats a building’s wastewater to purify it for reuse in nonpotable applications such as irrigation, cooling towers, toilet flushing, laundry and more. Epic’s approach can help reuse up to 95% of a building’s water, deliver significant savings on water and wastewater bills, and help cities conserve valuable regional water supplies, the company says. The Fifteen Fifty installation captures, filters and disinfects gray water from showers and laundry, as well as rainwater from the roof, and uses the ultra-pure water to flush toilets. That achievement comes as California grapples with a widespread mega-drought — the driest period in at least 1,200 years.
According to CNBC, U.S. water and sanitation rates “have outpaced inflation by nearly 300% over the past two decades, while growing urban populations strain aging municipal water infrastructure.” California is expected to spend approximately $4.3 billion on new treatment facilities, upgrades and expansions of existing reuse treatment facilities, and additional networks to distribute treated water to end users.
