Water recycling — once dubbed “toilet-to-tap” by naysayers — has officially entered a new era in California. This month, statewide regulations for what’s technically called “direct potable reuse” went into effect. The rules allow wastewater — yes, the water that goes down the drain or is flushed down the toilet — to be treated to drinkable standards then distributed directly to homes and businesses. … Previously, California law only allowed “indirect potable reuse,” which is what the Fountain Valley facility does — highly treated wastewater is injected underground into an aquifer, where further, natural filtration occurs. Then that water is put into the pipelines to our homes and businesses.  Direct potable reuse, which is what these newly effective regulations are about, skips that step where the water is injected into groundwater basins. Instead, the highly treated sewage water goes directly to drinking water treatment plants and then is distributed.

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