Reverse osmosis (RO) systems can be water-intensive. According to the EPA, "a typical RO system sends five gallons of water or more down the drain for every one gallon of treated water it produces!". Some RO systems can even run water into the sewer system constantly. This can increase your indoor usage significantly.
Water filtration is not needed from a water quality perspective, but may be desired for personal reasons (taste, softness, etc.). SMWD advocates for systems that use exchange tanks that require regular maintenance via a service as opposed to RO systems or a salt based water softener. The latter systems can also put back extra salt into the wastewater, which means SMWD has to treat more salt at our treatment plants and our recycled water quality (TDS, total dissolved solids) suffers.

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