More and more communities around Arizona, and the country, are looking at recycled wastewater as a solution for dwindling water supplies — and that includes using it as drinking water. But for lots of residents, the reaction has been “yuck.”
Marisa Manheim, assistant professor in the Department of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, tried to figure out how to get beyond that initial response, and convince people that it’s really OK to drink recycled wastewater.
While getting her doctorate at ASU, Manheim did research on this and ultimately recruited skeptics to help create an exhibit on it called "The Future Taste of Water." Among other aspects, it included samples and a pleasant environment. And, Manheim says, importantly, it also included groups of people drinking the recycled wastewater together, which helps normalize it and allows people to move beyond their initial gut reactions.
Manheim joined The Show to discuss what first got her interested in how people could come around to the idea of drinking recycled wastewater.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Marisa, what first got you interested in how people could come around to the idea of drinking recycled wastewater?
MARISA MANHEIM: Previously, there has been a lot of outreach oriented around beer tastings. The idea being that you can recycle the water and then people might be more hesitant to sample the recycled wastewater as just straight water, but once you turn it into a tasty beverage that it's much more enticing, and it gives people a chance to potentially get over their initial hesitancy. And that has been a strategy that's been used around the world with a lot of success.
So what we were interested in doing is taking what works about that form of engagement, but bringing it to a broader audience. You know, not everyone drinks beer or microbrews especially. And so we had an opportunity to work with local utilities and find out what works about beer tastings. So we did a study initially about the beer festivals and the beer tastings, find out what works with those and then apply it to a more mainstream opportunity.
BRODIE: So is it something specific about beer that sort of brings people in? Like, I wonder if you serve them iced tea or maybe pasta that had been boiled in recycled water? Would it have had the same effect?
MANHEIM: I think it's just about finding what it is that is pleasurable and enticing to certain groups of people. So some people are really enthusiastic about beer. There's an entire culture around it, microbreweries. There's also an aspect of the breweries themselves being personalities, especially trusted personalities.
So there's a partnership that happens between the utility that's treating the wastewater and preparing it for brewing, and then the brewer who then is kind of the chef that turns it into the tasty beverage and that kind of amplifies or transfers the trust that brewer has with their customers onto the utility.
And, you know, one of the big challenges that utilities are facing nationwide is decreasing trust in tap water. So those kinds of partnerships can be really, really advantageous. But like I said, a beer isn't going to bring in every person. And so I think one of the strategies that utilities are starting to turn to is what are the other enticing consumables that they can start to explore to bring in other audiences?
So it can also be quite advantageous to us to offer, you know, really nicely chilled, you know, treated wastewater on a hot day and in summertime or, an outdoor activity where people are really wanting the water and it can be an opportunity to get them over those barriers.
BRODIE: How big are those barriers? I mean, we hear a lot about, you know, the sort of so-called ick factor that when people hear, oh, “this is recycled wastewater," you know, the phrase toilet to tap is one that I know a lot of municipalities and water utilities don't particularly love. Like, how big of a barrier is it to get people to accept drinking recycled wastewater?
MANHEIM: Yeah, I mean, it's talked about a lot as one of the biggest obstacles. And I think one of the kind of key pivots of our approach was we saw people not as a barrier, but as an opportunity. And kind of stepping out of those ways of thinking opened up a whole new suite of opportunities, to engage with different people, to find out what would make the idea and the possibility of incorporating treated wastewater into the drinking water supply, not only something that they wouldn't object to, but actually something they would embrace and even champion among their own communities.
BRODIE: Did you find that there's a particular language that is most helpful in doing that?
MANHEIM: Yeah, I think the language and terminology is both extremely important, and I think that sometimes it becomes you know, oh, if we can only just find the right words, we'll be able to kind of work through all of these concerns. And so while I think it's really important to find these less technical terminologies, like moving away from the very technical terminology of direct potable reuse to something that's more about recycled wastewater, because then people know what you're talking about and it's not being hidden behind some technical terms.
And also, you know, there's been really important work to find out about the types of terminologies that people really gravitate to. For example, pure water is something that people are really looking for in their water supply.
BRODIE: How much do you think utilities can and maybe should be playing into? Look, this is something that's going to have to happen. You might not like it, but water supplies being what they are, this is something like you might not, you might not love it, we might not be able to give it to you in beer or popsicles or whatever else, you might just have to get used to the fact this is going to be coming out of your tap.
MANHEIM: Yeah. I mean, I think that there's a lot of, there's a lot of truth to that. But I think the the opportunity is to enroll people in that work of building resilience in the, in the water supply because, as you know, people in central Arizona are highly concerned about the security of their drinking water supply, and they want to do what they can to make the water supply more reliable in the future.
BRODIE: Do you get the sense that even with all of these interventions and things that water utilities can do, that there's some group of people who will just never get on board, that they just will not be able to get over the yuck factor.
MANHEIM: I think that that's definitely true. There will always be a subset of people who will never be able to be convinced. And I think that that's probably a particularly true in the present moment. But that aside, the scientific research does show that people generally underestimate their ability to adapt to new circumstances.
So when we're first proposed something that seems objectionable, for example, the concept that we will be someday, drinking advanced treated wastewater as part of our drinking water supply, we say, “Hell no, I will never do that. I will never accept that.”SAnd lo and behold, 15 years from now, as it's when it becomes a normalized part of the drinking water supply, there will be a time when it will be something that people don't even think twice about.
