Where exactly does your bowel movement go when you flush the toilet? I hope I'm not drinking the same water later on.

Arpeggionist

Depends where you live. The pipes in your home serve the double purpose of bringing clean water in and dirty water out of your apartment. Different places have their different rivers where their waste goes. Lake Erie is one well known such place in the American Northeast. Here in Israel the most famous body of wastewater is the river Sorek. In the Bible the Sorek was mentioned as the river which flowed from the Jerusalem/Benjaminite area to the Mediterranian, and was one of the judge Samson's favorite spots. Today it is composed mostly of the urine and waste of most of western Israel, from Jerusalem to southern Tel Aviv and Ashdod. Eventually this waste winds up in the ocean, where it joins up with toxic waste from industry and animal products around the globe. In most civilized countries there is little chance of it returning in its filthy state to your home and your dinner glasses. But unfortunately there are places where that happens. Sep 13 04, 7:35 AM

lothruin

Most cities in the US have waste treatment plants, where the wastewater is processed and THEN sent into the rivers. I don't really know the particulars, but raw sewage is NOT released into streams, rivers or lakes. As for the drinking of the water later on, in the grand scheme, that is exactly what happens. All water is recycled eventually, isn't it? But you aren't drinking it until well after it's been processed, by man AND by nature. Certain exceptions may exist, as in Florida at the moment, which, due to flooding, is on a boil-all-water alert, because high water tables and an over-burdened drainage system can cause unclean water to back up into clean-water pipes. Sep 13 04, 8:05 AM

Baloo55th

A lot of the water evaporates from rivers, lakes and seas to form the clouds that all seemed to target me this last weekend. This means that the higher up the river your water comes from, the cleaner it will be. If you're on flush toilets, that means treament works as the others have said, and the water that comes out from them is reckoned to be almost fit to drink without going through the treatment that drinking water goes through. So they say, anyway. If there was only one water extraction plant per river and outputs downstream, no problems. But there is a cleaning effect in rivers and that coupled with the treatment of drinking water means what you get will be OK. But basically, water is water. It's what lives in it that's the trouble.... Sep 13 04, 8:23 AM

sue943

I live on an island, after processing the waste is pumped into the sea, then we have a de-salination plant which takes in sea water and processes it and feeds it into the reservoirs ready for treating so that we can drink it. Ewk! Sep 13 04, 11:20 AM