Elon Musk builds political support, local geologist chosen for NASA astronaut corps, guidebook welcomes refugees to SoCal

The basic point is that anything that leaves your house is waste. Wastewater ends up at a big, central wastewater treatment plant. 



The water goes through an extensive level of treatment, which we call secondary treatment, to the point where that water's suitable for ocean discharge. 



That water goes to an advanced level of treatment at the Orange County Water District where the water is of ultra-pure quality, where it goes beyond drinking water quality. That water can then be introduced or replenished into the local groundwater aquifer, which is the main source of drinking water in North and Central Orange County. 



The water bottle comes from our facility. Part of the effort to bottle the water is one that we've spent a lot of time working through the California legislature even to allow that to occur. We feel that drinking it is the best way to show that the technology is there, it's been done, and it's another way to find alternative-sourced water in a drought-stricken region. 

The heart of it's been around since the mid-70s, early 80s. But using this technology for municipal water treatment is relatively new. Our project's probably one of the first to use it on a large scale. 

We maintain a large underground aquifer here in Orange County that's the main drinking water source for almost two-and-a-half-million people. The sources that have traditionally replenished the groundwater here have been affected by the drought. 



We knew that — to keep up with demand in the area — we needed to come up with an alternative source of water. 



We knew that this highly treated wastewater was being discharged through the ocean millions of gallons a day and that there was the potential that that water could be treated to drinking water standards and beyond and used as an additional source. 



We did years and years of research and testing and found that not only could we treat this water, but we could treat it economically to the point where it's cost-competitive with the other sources of water that are used to replenish the aquifer. Once we knew that, we decided to build the project.

Yeah, a lot of it is in our heads. What most people don't realize is that treated wastewater of different qualities has always been part of the water supply. All water has been recycled at one point or another. Any water is the same water. It's just the level of treatment that determines.



We don't want the water to be judged by its source, but by where it is today. That's the bias we have to overcome. 

Yeah, and that's the number one comment we get. And it should. It's water. All water is water as long as you do the right treatment like we have. It shouldn't taste any different. This water is just as good if not better than any other source of water you're drinking now. 

​​"Certainly, as we think about the long-term goal of expanding our human presence in the solar system, including Mars, it's very exciting to be a part of it."

I work mostly on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. There's the operations side where I'm helping a large, international team of scientists and engineers that come together on a daily basis to help decide where we want the rover to go based on the images that come down. And then, decide what we want to do there as well. What do we want to analyze and how do we want to analyze it? Once the scientists have decided that, then we turn it over to the engineers, who then turn that into commands to send up to the rover to execute the next day. 

Being a geologist and having most of my training be in terrestrial geology, we are actually able to translate those main, fundamental geologic principles to the surface of Mars. We can use images to get a sense of where the surface is currently. And then, we kind of back out, put together the story of how those rocks must have gotten to that point, and what must of happened in their history for the surface to look the way it does now. 



The cool part is, they're not that different. Or in a lot of ways, they're pretty similar. That been part of the reason why I've been so passionate about Mars, is that is has so many similarities. And I think because of that, we can learn a lot about Earth as we study Mars. 

I head down to Houston in August and we'll start our two year training period with the other 11 classmates that have been selected with me. We're going to be doing a lot of different things. Looking at the systems at the International Space Station, robotics, flight training, learning the Russian language. And I'm really excited to have such a diverse set of things that we're learning, but also, to learn from each other. The team of people that they've chosen are all amazing people and all have their own individual expertise. And I'm excited to learn from their individual expertise throughout that process. 



There's a whole group of people who work on, what do we need in order to go to space? Where are our muscle groups... that need to be stronger than others, in particular as we start thinking about long-duration space travel. There's definitely a lot that we can learn from astronauts that have come back from space and how their bodies have responded that gives us some indication of what we can do to prepare. 

There's a treadmill that you strap yourself into. There's a bike but it doesn't actually have a seat because there's no need to sit down in space. So there are these pieces of exercise equipment that mimic those on Earth that provide some of that weight lifting and some of that resistance that we need to maintain our health. 

I think diversity is important for a couple of reasons. First, I think it's important that everyone bring their own set of experiences and their own set of perspectives, particularly as you approach a problem. If people approach a problem in different ways, then you have a higher chance of being successful at solving that problem. So, I think that's one important piece of diversity.



The other piece is more the exposure side of it. I think it's important for young people and young girls to be able to see somebody who looks like them, doing the things that they aspire to do and do cool things like go into space. 



I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to have lots of mentors which actually was really important in my development in getting me to this point. I certainly looked up to Dr. Mae Jemison who was the first African-American female in space. And she kind of provided that exposure... where she was somebody that I could look up to and see that achieving the impossible was actually in the realm of possibility. 

"We came to the United States from Romania as refugees in 1982 and my parents were political activists. They came to America and we resettled in Garden Grove. Garden Grove has been a historically very welcoming city. One neighbor brought a paper with different addresses and resources on it: where the post office was, where the social security office was, some congregations, thrift stores ... and for my parents, they found that to be the most precious gift because now they had something to be able to support them in integration. 



And so when we were thinking about the refugee guidebook I was always thinking back to this. What would it be to not just say, 'we welcome you, refugees' but actually have a physical document that shows refugees what life is like in Southern California."

"We really didn't know exactly what we were doing. We just did it step by step so we partnered with World Relief and other resettlement agencies and they really helped us with some sections. But we put this out on social media and that kind of got us going and so we held data parties."

"We basically asked the participants to just use Google docs and put down different addresses and resources for about 60 different categories like hospitals and doctors and parks and hiking areas."

"The first one is basic services. We really leaned into our refugee resettlement agencies like World Relief and they really helped us with what refugees need. 



The next section was Eat, Shop, Play. It has restaurants and Halal markets and then we also increased it and did cheaper affordable or free fun things for families.




The last section is resilient communities and for me, creating communities that are resilient, that can support each other, that can withstand crises is my life's passion and work and so the resilient community section gives a lot of information for refugees that are in a way things that are stigmatized in Arab or Muslim culture or even within refugee communities like domestic violence and PTSD and mental health, depression ... even suicide prevention. These kind of more difficult topics, we present them and we also offer them resources that they can go get support and help."

"I was sitting and writing this and I was just starting to cry and to tear up because I realized how much we have to deconstruct and leave behind of our culture to be successful in America and that's the pain and the loss that many refugees face every day. It's not necessarily negative or positive, it's very different though."