Be On The Lookout, Sewer Beer May Exist In The Near Future

Bogey Wells11 years ago

As you complete the heinous dump you’ve been enjoying as you browse the site, keep this in mind: That water you’re about to flush into God knows where may soon find its way to your beer. It hasn’t happened yet, but if a few Oregonians get their way, the dominos may start falling.

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission voted unanimously to allow Clean Water Services — a wastewater treatment company — to use recycled sewage water for home brewed beers. While the treatment facility is supposedly state-of-the-art, the thought of water that once came in contact with my bodily wastes entering my mouth is utterly horrifying.

From OPB:

Clean Water Services has an advanced treatment process that can turn sewage into drinking water.

The utility, which runs four wastewater treatment plants in the Portland metro area, wants to show off its “high-purity” system by turning recycled wastewater into beer.

Fucking disgusting. As it stands, the use of sewage water presents an entirely new ballgame for the Oregonian health and environmental regulators. The only current legal uses of recycled sewage water are irrigation, industrial, and groundwater recharge. All of the uses are not in the same spectrum as using it in a product directly consumed by humans.

So far, both the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission and the Oregon Health Authority have shown support for the initiative.

The Oregon Health Authority has already approved the utility’s request, citing “the high quality of the treated water, additional microbial reduction in the brewing process, and a low health risk overall.”

The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission echoed that point of view at its meeting in Portland.

If I wanted to drink piss, I’d shotgun a Natty..

[via OPB]

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