Recycled water

Increasing attention has been given in recent years to the use of reclaimed municipal wastewater for groundwater recharge. What may look like sewage to flush away to a layperson is, to the eyes of a resource manager, water to treat and conserve.

Recycled water is municipal wastewater which, as a result of specified treatment, is suitable for beneficial use. Currently approved uses of recycled water in California include non-potable uses, such as irrigation of turf and landscaping, agricultural uses, dust control and industrial cooling. Recycled water that has received additional treatment can be used to recharge groundwater aquifers and to prevent seawater intrusion into underground drinking supplies.

In the near future, the State Water Board will develop regulations to authorize the addition of highly treated recycled water to drinking water reservoirs.

Learn more about California’s recycled water policy by clicking here.

Key information:

Municipal Recycled Water: Resource Management StrategyIssue Brief: Water Reuse Potential in California

Municipal Recycled Water: Resource Management Strategy

Link to this content.

CWP-RMS-Ch-11-Municpal_Recycled_Water_July2016

Issue Brief: Water Reuse Potential in California

From the NRDC and the Pacific Institute:

There is tremendous opportunity to expand water reuse in California. In most urban areas, water is used once, treated, and disposed of as waste. Reuse provides a reliable, local water supply that reduces vulnerability to droughts and other water-supply constraints. It can also provide economic and environmental benefits, for example, by reducing energy use, diversions from rivers and streams, and pollution from wastewater discharges.

Some progress is being made. An estimated 670,000 acre-feet of municipal wastewater is already beneficially reused in the state each year (SWRCB and DWR 2012). Onsite reuse—including the use of graywater—is also practiced in communities across California, although data are not available to estimate these volumes. More can and should be done.

Click here to download this issue brief.

Recycled water articles on Maven’s Notebook

Notebook recycled water posts

BOOK REVIEW: Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing ClimateIn Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate (Yale University Press, 2023), Dr. David Sedlak charts a realistic, practical, and inspiring course of action for tackling the world’s water crises. Sedlak’s remarkable book is both broad in scope and meticulously researched, and his writing style is engaging for professional and general readers. Those seeking sensible, well-informed, all-of-the-above solutions to water issues should have Water for All on their shelves. Water for All builds on Sedlak’s previous work, Water […]

CAL MATTERS: California approves rules that turn sewage into drinking waterBy Rachel Becker, Cal Matters Stay up-to-date with free briefings on topics that matter to all Californians. Subscribe to CalMatters today for nonprofit news in your inbox. In a milestone for creating a major new source of drinking water, California has approved its first standards for turning sewage into potable water supplies delivered to homes and businesses. The State Water Resources Control Board, In a unanimous vote today, outlined for the first time how water suppliers can treat recycled water […]

STATE WATER BOARD: Regulations approved for converting wastewater to high quality drinking waterDirect potable reuse will help address climate change impacts on water supplies From the State Water Resources Control Board: Further advancing the Administration’s all-of-the-above Water Supply Strategy to make California more resilient to hotter, drier conditions, the State Water Resources Control Board approved regulations today that will allow water systems to develop treatment protocols to convert wastewater into high quality drinking water. The board’s unanimous vote gives California the most advanced standards in the nation for treating wastewater to such […]

STATELINE: From flush to faucet: More places look to turn sewage into tap waterOvercoming the ‘yuck’ factor is a challenge. by Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline December 12, 2023 Read more Stateline coverage of how communities across the West are grappling with drought that’s worsening because of climate change. After an Orange County resident flushes her toilet, the water flows through the Southern California community’s sewer system, meanders its way to the sanitation plant, has its solids removed, is piped to a wastewater recycling facility next door and undergoes three different purification processes until it is clean enough […]

CAL MATTERS: Don’t call it ‘toilet to tap’ — California plans to turn sewage into drinking waterStay up-to-date with free briefings on topics that matter to all Californians. Subscribe to CalMatters today for nonprofit news in your inbox. By Rachel Becker, Cal Matters Californians could drink highly purified sewage water that is piped directly into drinking water supplies for the first time under proposed rules unveiled by state water officials. The drought-prone state has turned to recycled water for more than 60 years to bolster its scarce supplies, but the current regulations require it to first […]

AGU: Many of California’s threatened species live in reused water — for better or worseFrom the American Geophysical Union In the parched west, reusing water is a must. But scientists are still working to understand how reused, treated municipal waste water might impact the environments it’s released into. This water can have negative impacts, such as eutrophication, but can also provide new flow for spots where water had been diverted or dried up long ago. While many studies have explored the impact of reused water on water quality, fewer have examined its impacts on […]

PRESS RELEASE: Next phase of recycled water begins for California *UPDATED with advance copy of the regulationsState advances nation-leading proposed regulations to convert wastewater to high-quality drinking water From the State Water Resources Control Board Achieving a major milestone in the state’s efforts to maximize the potential of recycled water, the State Water Resources Control Board announced today proposed regulations that would allow for water systems to add wastewater that has been treated to levels meeting or exceeding all drinking water standards to their potable supplies. The process, known as direct potable reuse, will enable systems […]

NOW AVAILABLE: Harvest Water Program contracts for the administration of public benefits now onlineFrom the California Water Commission: Proponents of the Harvest Water Program, a conjunctive-use project eligible for Proposition 1 funds through the Water Storage Investment Program, submitted documents required by Prop. 1, including the final contracts for the administration of public benefits, and will appear at the Water Commission meeting on June 21 for a final funding hearing. The documents are available to view on the Commission’s website, on the Harvest Water Program page, under the “Documents Required for Final Funding […]

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Sacramento’s New Wastewater Treatment Upgrade Will Help Recharge Groundwater—Will It Also Help the Delta?by Robin Meadows Two decades ago, scientists were alarmed by sudden declines in at-risk fish and their tiny prey, called zooplankton, in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. “No one knew why,” says Dylan Stern, a Program Manager at the Delta Stewardship Council, a state agency. “Everyone was kind of freaking out.” After a flurry of investigation, a potential cause emerged: nutrient pollution in the form of excess ammonia, a nitrogen compound, from Sacramento’s wastewater treatment plant. Operated by the Sacramento […]

HEATHER COOLEY: Solutions for Building Water Resilience in CaliforniaWith the ever-changing climate and increasingly dry summers, California faces water challenges, despite this year’s bountiful snowpack. At the February meeting of the California Water Commission, Heather Cooley, Director of Research at the Pacific Institute, explained how increasing water efficiency, water reuse, and stormwater capture is essential to building and enhancing California’s water resilience. Heather Cooley began by noting that the past 22 years in the southwestern US have been the driest in 1200 years, partly due to climate change. […]

Explore recycled water at the California Water Library

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