“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Franklin likely meant it metaphorically, but in much of the western United States, now enduring “extreme drought” conditions yet again, it may be felt literally. As the wells remain dry, and as the climate continues to change in ways that upend our lives and our expectations, American communities are increasingly looking for ways to recycle our most precious commodity.

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