Tampa mulls recycling wastewater

TAMPA, Fla., June 24 (UPI) -- A Tampa, Fla., city councilman says he wants to recycle the city's treated wastewater into drinking water instead of flushing it into Tampa Bay.

Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda has resurrected a decades-old idea that is getting new scrutiny as Tampa faces severe water usage restrictions due to a drought, The Tampa Tribune reported Wednesday.

"We need to become self-sufficient," he said. "We need to do a better job of conserving."

The newspaper said city officials are not dismissing the suggestion, instead talking to hydrological experts and state officials about Miranda's resurrection of an idea to build a plant to purify the city's wastewater before sending it back into the Hillsborough River, which serves as Tampa's primary source of drinking water.

"I don't think the community is ready for something like this," Councilman John Dingfelder told the Tribune. "We have people that are too frightened to put reclaimed water on their lawns, let alone in their bodies."