Water Strategy
In 1976, Orange County installed the first reverse osmosis treatment plant to purify household wastewater to drinking-water standards (Prud'Homme, 109). That means it had to convince the populace that this was a good idea. They were, after all, early adopters of a new technology. There was a very specific need, not drinking water, but water to stop the migration of salt water into the very plentiful (but receding) Orange County aquifer. That story, told repeatedly, became the basis for a very strategic adoption of treated sewer water into the Orange County drinking water system. Even today, the treated water is still injected into the ground, but now it has a different use. Transported inland more than ten miles, the water is injected into the aquifer, the same aquifer from which many Orange County communities pump their drinking water. An interesting thing happened. The mainstream populace didn't object to what was going on. The water didn't hurt anyone when it was used as a salt water barrier. Therefore, we all assumed, it wouldn't hurt anyone when it flowed through the aquifer to local pumps. It'll be a while, I predict, before we are ready to accept the treated water flowing straight from the treatment facility into the drinking water system. It's pure and healthy. The adoption cycle will take some more time before everyone accepts that purity. We're no longer as squeamish as we once were. We do, however, have a way to go before we totally accept this new technology in Orange County.
Interesting side note: other communities are still having this battle, some of them not so far away from Orange County. Their alternative strategies work just as well as Orange County's - they just cost a whole lot more in money, and resources.
Reference
Prud'Homme, Alex. The Ripple Effect. The fate of freshwate in the twenty-first century. Scribner. 2011.