California's Clean Water Revolving Fund Leads To Surge In Reuse

Water recycling is having a heyday in California during the state’s five-year drought in part due to state policies designed to promote the practice.

“A low-interest loan program that supports California water projects has seen three times more requests for money than it has funds available, partly because of surging interest in water recycling,” News Deeply recently reported.

The State Water Resources Control Board manages the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides favorable loans to borrowers. Largely supported by federal dollars, California’s fund saw a surge in requests as the drought began.

Fund managers have made the deliberate decision to promote recycled water projects.

“In 2014, as the state was in the thick of the drought, the water board allocated $800 million from the fund specifically for projects that recycle treated sewage for potable use or landscape irrigation. And it offered funding for these projects at an interest rate of just 1 percent — half its usual loan rate. This proved so popular that the program was extended in February, with another $160 million added for water recycling projects,” the report said.

The fund has never been more popular. Christopher Stevens, a supervisor at the agency managing the fund, explained to News Deeply: “Over the last eight to 10 years or so, we had a lot of extra cash in the program. Now, we’re writing more loans and more money is going out the door.”

The water board has shifted its policies in recent years to streamline the borrowing process and give borrowers more time to repay their loans.

“There is definitely more demand on the program, and that was something we did intentionally,” Stevens said. “It’s great to have cash in the bank, but that really wasn’t doing as much for water quality as could be done. It’s fair to say there are billions of dollars that we could use to finance additional projects.”

California is also working toward allowing direct potable reuse projects in the state, a transition that will require policy changes. State regulators took a step closer to allowing direct potable reuse last month, releasing a study about the feasibility of using this treatment practice in the drought-plagued state.

Stakeholders have until the end of December to comment on the draft report before it is submitted to the state legislature, according to a release from the California Water Resources Control Board. State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus called the draft “a historic step.”

To read more about water recycling visit Water Online’s Water Reuse Solutions Center.