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Water & Sanitation · Recorded milestone

Potable water recycling

Recorded year2008

Orange County purifies wastewater back to drinking quality at scale.

Explore this milestone on the interactive map

Built on

Activated-sludge treatmentRecorded · 1914enables
Reverse-osmosis membraneRecorded · 1960enables

Led to

Sewage as a resourceRecorded · 2018enables
98% water recycling in orbitRecorded · 2023enables
Closed-loop city waterForecast · ~2042enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.