PHOENIX - It may sound disgusting on paper: converting waste water to beer you drink.
But when you take a look at the science, the Arizona Pure Water Brew Challenge is actually a way for the city to recycle reclaimed H20 in an environmentally friendly and healthy way.
"This water is going to be cleaner than most of the water people drink today," said Channah Rock, a water quality specialist with the University of Arizona.
The Arizona Pure Water Brew Challenge is a statewide campaign.
The goal is to raise awareness on reusable water by filtering water in Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff and providing the pure form to local breweries to make beer.
The brewery with the best beer will win $12,000 in September.
In Phoenix on Tuesday, 7,000 gallons of waste water were filtered, tested and handed to 11 local breweries.
The filtration truck had five stations to clean the water, each station removing different things out of the water waste: organic matter, pharmaceuticals, salts, viruses and bacteria.
The last step is to add some chlorine to the water to ensure the purity.
"The same thing that goes on at your drinking water facility," said Rock. "That’s going to add a low dose of chlorine to make sure that, once we purify that water and it’s pure, that it stays pure."
For more information, visit: http://www.azpurewaterbrew.org/.