Basically they're taking pre-treated water from the city sewage plant and running it through their own mini-treatment plant to a level that allows them to use it in their cooling system. They do mention filtration & sterilization from chlorine, so I am wondering really how much different the cooling water is compared to potable drinking water.
The water they're getting from the sewage treatment plant is definitely not raw toilet water. I imagine Google is getting a big discount by treating their own water.
Sewage waste tends to have high amounts of pharmaceuticals excreted in urine, which are hard to filter but biodegrade. I wouldn't drink the Google water it, but it probably has no immediate toxicity.
Google must treat the water with chlorine, because of risks like Legionnaires' disease.
Basically they're taking pre-treated water from the city sewage plant and running it through their own mini-treatment plant to a level that allows them to use it in their cooling system. They do mention filtration & sterilization from chlorine, so I am wondering really how much different the cooling water is compared to potable drinking water.
The water they're getting from the sewage treatment plant is definitely not raw toilet water. I imagine Google is getting a big discount by treating their own water.