Working as a landscaper here in Southern California where there has
been an increasing trend to switch from "potable" drinking water source to a
"reclaimed" recycled water source to irrigate the landscape which
helps save costs and the environment. (as they say)  My question is:
Is this reclaimed water hazardous to my health and the environment? The smell of
chlorine (how much?) is just too much.  And I bet this cholorine over
long periods of time will infact hurt everyone in the vicinity.  I
understand each county has their own ways to test the reclaimed water
(yes not much compared to drinking water) but I am going to lose my
hair if I work around the landscape area where there is reclaimed
water in use?  Is there something that this whole trend is NOT telling
me?  I am going to get cancer?  Should I be concerned? Thank you for
you time and consideration.

Hi, there are several publications on this:

Most recent looks like this one in PDF: 

http://www.hwea.org/events/02_reuse/abstracts/health_aspects_of_groundwater_recharge.pdf


Use of Reclaimed Water and Sludge in Food Crop Production (1996)

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309054796/html/

Full text is available by clicking on the links to each of the
chapters.

Groundwater Recharge with Reclaimed Water: Birth Outcomes in Los
Angeles County, 1982-1993.  It is actually full text when you click on
the individual chapters:

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1077/

Hope these help.

Hi,

Just clarifying that this link:

http://www.hwea.org/events/02_reuse/abstracts/health_aspects_of_groundwater_recharge.pdf

is Health Aspects of Groundwater Recharge, and looks like it was
published sometime between 1998-2002.

Hope this helps.

A lot of science goes into making tap water as safe as possible, with
routine laboratory analysis of samples.

Any alternative source must necessarily miss out.

I recall reading about the provision of some water supply system in
Africa, years ago. Because of the possibility that the pipes may have
been exposed to damage by insects, some bright spark had the idea of
sprinkling DDT on the pipes before they were buried.

Of course, the further thought never occurred that the pipes might get
damaged anyway and the DDT would then be introduced into the water
supplies ...