In Orange County, California, wastewater from people’s homes is
not considered waste. Instead of treating it and sending it to
the ocean, Orange County purifies its wastewater with an
additional three-step process. Each day, the county treats
about 130 million gallons until it’s safe enough to drink.
Patel: “And then we take that highly treated, recycled water,
and we surface-spread it in a series of lakes or ponds and then
let it naturally seep or percolate down and replenish the
aquifer.” Mehul Patel is with the Orange County Water District.
He says the aquifer is a key source of water for people who
live in the area.
California isn’t recycling nearly enough water, according to a
new report by UCLA researchers, who say the state should treat
and reuse more wastewater to help address the Colorado River’s
chronic shortages. Analyzing data for large sewage treatment
plants in seven states that rely on Colorado River water, the
researchers found California is recycling only 22% of its
treated wastewater. That’s far behind the country’s driest two
states: Nevada, which is recycling 85% of its wastewater, and
Arizona, which is reusing 52%. The report, based on 2022 data,
found other states in the Colorado River Basin are trailing,
with New Mexico recycling 18%, Colorado 3.6%, Wyoming 3.3% and
Utah less than 1%.
L.A.’s big plans to recycle almost all of its wastewater for
drinking is likely to take a lot longer than originally
proposed. Back in 2019, former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti
announced a goal to recycle almost all of L.A.’s wastewater by
2035. But the long-awaited plan on how to actually do that
pushes the timeline back more than 20 years — to 2056, though
some wastewater would be recycled for drinking by 2040. “In
today’s environment where literally our sources of water are
drying up before our eyes, we need to move much more quickly,”
said Bruce Reznik, director of the nonprofit L.A. Waterkeeper,
at a special joint meeting Tuesday between the boards
overseeing the L.A. Department of Water and Power and L.A.
Sanitation and Environment, the city agencies leading the
project.
As the Valley grows, so does the pressing question: Is there
enough water to support everyone? In Peoria, this concern is at
the forefront. The city is unlocking thousands of acres for new
development and welcoming a significant Amkor semiconductor
plant. To meet the increasing demand, Peoria is expanding its
Beardsley Water Reclamation Facility, aiming to increase its
capacity and send more reclaimed water to the growing
northern region of the city. This expansion is crucial
for treating the rising wastewater volumes, for use in public
green spaces, construction, street cleaning, replenishing
groundwater, and ensuring a sustainable water supply for the
city’s future. … While this reclaimed water isn’t used for
drinking, its increased availability means that more potable
water remains accessible to residents.
The Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors just
decided on our “path to resiliency” by approving a pipeline to
bring water from the Russian River in Sonoma County. As a
director and co-founder of the Marin Coalition for Water
Solutions group, I can say our members thank the board for this
step, as it will help. However, it won’t completely solve
the problem. The pipeline will provide a limited amount of
water under contract with the Sonoma County agency. … (T)he
board should also aggressively pursue a longer-term,
drought-proof alternative – water reuse. –Written by Steve Isaacs, co-founder of Marin Coalition
for Water Solutions.
Freshwater use in oil and gas drilling has come under scrutiny
in Colorado as the state faces a historic drought. On
Wednesday, March 12, state regulators announced new rules that
will require drillers to use more recycled water in their
operations and, hopefully, relieve pressure on scarce
freshwater resources. … Under Colorado’s new regulations,
by the beginning of 2026, oil companies must use at least 4
percent recycled produced water across their operations in the
state. In 2030, that requirement increases to a minimum of 10
percent.
… El Paso’s Pure Water Center, which will go online by 2028, is
the first direct-to-distribution reuse facility in the country.
Treating wastewater for reuse as drinking water has long been
controversial. But as the technology has advanced and water
resources dwindle, more cities are exploring direct
reuse. El Paso is the first out of the gate, but Phoenix
and Tucson are expected to follow suit. Elsewhere in Texas,
communities from the Panhandle to the Hill Country are
considering their own
facilities. Colorado and California recently
adopted rules to regulate the treatment technology.
California is no stranger to drought. The worry about water
usage is an ongoing concern for homeowners and businesses
alike, but at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, the lush
landscaping suggests they don’t have a water worry at
all. … The reason for that peace of mind can be found in
the basement of the hotel. The Waldorf recently converted its
water recapturing system to Epic Cleantec, which allows
them to treat and reuse all of the hotel’s shower and sink
water to irrigate the landscaping throughout the property.
Real solutions to climate-proof water supplies are available …
Indeed, LA’s largest wholesale water provider, the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California, has shifted from an
historic focus on increasing water imports to maximizing local
water supplies, like water recycling, given climate impacts.
That’s why the Metropolitan Water District, along with many
other water agencies, supported the recent climate bond to
invest in a range of smart water solutions. These include
climate-proof strategies, such as: increasing groundwater
recharge and storage, modernizing water rights, strategically
repurposing land to maximize water savings and community
well-being, and conserving and reusing whenever possible.
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled through Inland
Southern California to learn about the region’s efforts in
groundwater management, recycled water and other drought-proofing
measures.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
State discharge standards for recycled water and its reuse are
regulated by the 1969 Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act
and the State Water Resources Control Board’s 2019 Water
Recycling Policy.
Recycling wastewater provides a new, costly but renewable water
resource that can bolster local water supplies, save energy and
reduce the amount of sewage treatment plant effluent emptied into
rivers and oceans.
Wastewater management in California centers on the collection,
conveyance,
treatment, reuse and disposal of wastewater. This process is
conducted largely by public agencies, though there are also
private systems in places where a publicly owned treatment plant
is not feasible.
In California, wastewater treatment takes place through 100,000
miles of sanitary sewer lines and at more than 900 wastewater
treatment plants that manage the roughly 4 billion gallons of
wastewater generated in the state each day.
Grey water, also spelled as gray water, is water that already has
been used domestically, commercially and industrially. This
includes the leftover, untreated water generated from washing
machines, bathtubs and bathroom sinks.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
When a drought occurs as it has this year, the response is
couched in the three Rs of the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse and
recycle.
The reduction part is well-known. State and local officials are
urging people to use less water in everything they do, from
landscape irrigation to shorter showers. Spurred by California’s
difficulties, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on June 4 declared a
statewide drought. On July 10, the governor and Sen. Dianne
Feinstein announced their support of the Safe, Clean, Reliable
Drinking Water Supply Act of 2008 – a $9.3 billion bond proposal
that would allocate $250 million for water recycling projects.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
Water is the true wealth in a dry land – Wallace Stegner
One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt signed
legislation that changed the course of American history and
permanently altered the landscape of the western United States.
The West of today retains some of the vestiges of the land that
brought the explorers, entrepreneurs and dreamers hundreds of
years ago. Despite the surge in population, vast tracts of
wilderness remain – forests thick with evergreen trees and
seemingly unending open spaces where human inhabitants are few
and far between.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
