Spotlight On Reclaimed Water Regulations: California

Wastewater reuse is among the most compelling topics in a world of increasingly stringent regulations and dire public health threats. If your business could find a way to turn its wastewater into clean effluent for sanitation purposes or even potable drinking water, you’d be well on your way toward a more sustainable and profitable future.

In California, businesses now have a new tool in their arsenal of wastewater reuse.

At the end of 2023, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved regulations that “will allow water systems to develop treatment protocols to convert wastewater into high quality drinking water.” The concept is called “direct potable reuse,” and it’s the very vanguard of sustainable wastewater recycling in the U.S. According to the board, this new language represents “the most advanced standards in the nation for treating wastewater to such an extent that the finished product meets or exceeds current drinking water standards.”

Businesses operating in other states would do well to take note of California’s position.