With a lawn-and-garden lifestyle that promotes wasteful water practices, many Utahns don't act like they live in the nation's second-driest state. However, as the demand grows in our desert state, residents someday may be drinking tap water they might consider less than desirable: sewer effluent.

Purified, of course.

"It's just a matter of time," says Dave Ovard, general manager of the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District. "The technology is there."

Ovard admits there is a psychological resistance — the "yuck factor" — to using reclaimed sewer water.

"There will always be a stigma," he said.

However, attitude is still not the main problem such a purification project faces.

Money is.

Ovard said current drinking water supply, purification and pumping costs in the Salt Lake Valley are about $250 per acre-foot. Costs will rise in the future, but even those increases — from developing other water sources, such as controversial proposals for the Bear River, which could double the expense per acre-foot — are not likely to compare with the estimated cost to purify and reuse sewer water.

The investment to reclaim sewer water: $800 to $1,000 per acre-foot.

At up to four times today's water prices, reclaimed sewer effluent won't be flowing from Utah taps anytime soon.

"When it becomes economically feasible it will be a part of our future water supply" — and the purified water will be of a very high quality, Ovard said.

However, the high cost of sewer water isn't just from purification. Pumping costs will also prove expensive.

Most sewer plants in Utah are in lowland areas, such as around the Great Salt Lake. Pumping water back to higher elevations, where residents live, will also be costly.

To date, Ovard is only aware of limited sewer water reusage in Utah, generally confined to watering lawns at sewage treatment plants or nearby golf courses. He said the Central Valley Water Conservancy District is working on more widespread usage of treated sewer water.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com