Fast Facts

Israel reuses more than 70% of its wastewater effluent, which makes up about 10% of the total national water supply and almost 20% of the total water supply for irrigation.
About 70% of all artichokes grown in the United States are irrigated with recycled water.
There are about 250,000 residential reclaimed water users in Florida.
More than 12,000 acres of vegetables and fruits like strawberries are irrigated with recycled water in Monterey County, California and then shipped all over the United States.
Nearly 2,000 individual park, playground, and schoolyard sites in the United States are irrigated with recycled water.
Nonpotable (undrinkable) recycled/reclaimed water is distributed through purple pipes.
Communities in arid regions such as southern California have saved money and reduced energy consumption by using recycled water as an alternative to importing water from long distances.

There are more than 15,000 desalination plants currently operating in 120 countries worldwide.
Australia’s five largest cities are in the process of spending US $13.2 billion on new desalination facilities.
About 1% of the world’s drinking water supply comes from desalination plants.
Most large urban coastal centers worldwide have established a target to produce as much as 25% of their drinking water from desalination.
The largest desalination plant currently operating in the United States is in Tampa, Florida, and it has the capacity to produce 25 million gallons of water each day. However, other plants are being planned in California with twice as much capacity.
A seawater desalination plant in Sydney, Australia uses a wind farm to power a facility that is providing up to 15% of the community’s water supply.

Redwood City public officials celebrate the opening of their new recycled water system.