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Topic: Water Recycling

Overview April 24, 2014

Water Recycling

All water is recycled and reused as a part of natural water processes such as the hydrologic cycle.

Man-made water recycling, also known as water reclamation or water reuse, centers on using treated wastewater.

  • Read more
Aquafornia news August 13, 2025 Inside Climate News

Can Colorado recycle toxic water from oil and gas drilling without increasing emissions?

… This March, Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), which regulates the oil and gas industry, passed new rules requiring drillers to recycle more of their wastewater—a caustic, brackish and chemically laden byproduct of the drilling and fracking process known as “produced water.” The new rules were set in motion by HB23-1242, passed in 2023, which requires oil and gas extraction companies to use more recycled water, but do not address another key provision of the law: the increased recycling of produced water cannot cause more oil and gas emissions, which can contain CO2, methane, benzene, a known carcinogen, and other volatile organic compounds. Regulators across the state are trying to figure out whether meeting one requirement of the new law requires violating the other.

Other produced water news:

  • Santa Fe New Mexican: State water commission decides to hear new case on fracking wastewater reuse
  • Source New Mexico: Amid strong opposition, New Mexico water board lets plan for more oil and gas wastewater use proceed
  • New Mexico Political Report: 25 New Mexico lawmakers oppose petition to allow oil and gas wastewater discharge
  • The Taos News (N.M.): Local lawmakers: Reuse of treated oil and gas field wastewater good for NM
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news August 4, 2025 Earth Day

Blog: From sewage to clean water — what three global cities teach us about climate ingenuity

… [I]n the American West, water shortages are severe enough that even St. George, a small city of only 200,000 people, has decided to commit to the high financial costs of water reclamation. The project will cost about a billion dollars in total. … The new water reclamation plant, with 60 miles of new pipeline, and advanced wastewater treatment technology will enable them to stretch their resources even further. … While there are no active DPR facilities up and running in the United States right now, El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California are both considering DPR projects for the future. And diminishing regional water sources mean that we will likely see more water reclamation projects in the coming years across the Southwestern U.S.

  • Read more
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Aquafornia news July 29, 2025 Daily Breeze (Hermosa Beach, Calif.)

LA County sanitation officials have big plans: recycled drinking water and cleaner oceans

… The agency [Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts] operates 10 different water reclamation plants — from Valencia to Long Beach — that produce 150 million gallons of recycled water every day. The Warren Facility in Carson, meanwhile, isn’t just an isolated water treatment plant. Instead, it’s a key component in a wastewater treatment network  — called the Joint Outfall System — that consists of seven treatment facilities and more than 1,200 miles of sewers running from Long Beach to La Canada-Flintridge. It serves a vast majority of LASAN’s clientele — about 5 million people — and has the capacity to treat up to 400 million gallons of wastewater daily, making it one of the largest such facilities in the world. Six of the JOS plants, according to LASAN, convert less salty waste water into higher-quality recycled water, which is then sent off and used for landscape irrigation, groundwater replenishment and other uses.

Other water recycling news:

  • EPA: News release: National Water Reuse Action Plan quarterly update
  • E&E News by Politico: Biden EPA official to lead water recycling group
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news July 25, 2025 San Diego Union-Tribune

Opinion: What to do with all that ‘Pure Water’?

… These days, the focus is less on San Diego’s access to water — the envy of water managers everywhere — but on its astronomical costs. Further, what some of the visionaries didn’t foresee is the region would be stuck with way more water than it needs. Unloading it has proved a vexing problem. And a lot more is coming with the city of San Diego’s Pure Water recycling project — which could produce the region’s costliest water yet — and other emerging water reuse programs, such as one in East County. … One glimmer of hope to take the edge off the increases: emerging changes in the byzantine legal and political dynamics of California’s water world, which could open up markets for San Diego water. Oddly enough, some local officials are hoping a prime customer will be their former nemesis, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
–Written by San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Michael Smolens.

  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news July 17, 2025 KTAR (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Phoenix receives $179 million in federal funds for water purification facility

Nearly $180 million in federal funding will be spent on a new advanced water purification facility in Phoenix, officials announced Wednesday. The funding will help cover the design and construction costs of Phoenix’s new North Gateway Advanced Water Purification Facility that will treat 8 million gallons of recycled water each day. When combined with in-progress upgrades to the Cave Creek Water Reclamation Plant, the city’s water treatment sites will produce about 12.5 million gallons of water per day. Advanced Water Purification (AWP), which both sites will use, is the process by which wastewater is recycled into drinking water “so clean it meets or exceeds federal and local drinking water requirements,” according to the city’s website. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality permitted the technology to be used at the local level in March.

Other water recycling and desalination news:

  • KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.): Ariz. officials want to boost water supplies — but cutting funds from agency working to do that
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Publication January 15, 2025

Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
Updated 2024

Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling

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.

  • Read more
Aquafornia news April 30, 2024 Courthouse News Service

California water managers advise multipronged approach in face of 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.

Related climate change articles: 

  • Washington Post: Southern U.S. has faced twice the global sea level rise rate since 2010
  • Engineering News-Record: World Cup, olympics, climate change drive California infrastructure efforts
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Western Water December 19, 2023 Colorado River Basin Map Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling Western Water News: Colorado River shortages drive major advances in recycled sewage water use By Nick Cahill

Colorado River Shortages Drive Major Advances in Recycled Sewage Water Use
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Phoenix, Southern California betting on purified sewage to fill drinking water needs

After more than two decades of drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.

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.

  • Read more
Western Water April 29, 2022 Colorado River Basin Map WESTERN WATER-As Drought Shrinks the Colorado River, A SoCal Giant Seeks Help from River Partners to Fortify its Local Supply By Nick Cahill

As Drought Shrinks the Colorado River, A SoCal Giant Seeks Help from River Partners to Fortify its Local Supply
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Metropolitan Water District's wastewater recycling project draws support from Arizona and Nevada, which hope to gain a share of Metropolitan's river supply

Metropolitan Water District's advanced water treatment demonstration plant in Carson. Momentum is building for a unique interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern California homes and business into relief for the stressed Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water agencies.  

  • Read more
Western Water September 26, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Often Short of Water, California’s Southern Central Coast Builds Toward A Drought-Proof Supply
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Water agencies in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo counties look to seawater, recycled water to protect against water shortages

The spillway at Lake Cachuma in central Santa Barbara County. Drought in 2016 plunged its storage to about 8 percent of capacity.The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.

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.

  • Read more
Western Water July 11, 2019 California Water Map

Your Don’t-Miss Roundup of Summer Reading From Western Water

Dear Western Water reader, 

Clockwise, from top: Lake Powell, on a drought-stressed Colorado River; Subsidence-affected bridge over the Friant-Kern Canal in the San Joaquin Valley;  A homeless camp along the Sacramento River near Old Town Sacramento; Water from a desalination plant in Southern California.Summer is a good time to take a break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting a chance to do plenty of that this July.

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. 

  • Read more
Western Water June 13, 2019 Layperson's Guide to California Wastewater Gary Pitzer

As Californians Save More Water, Their Sewers Get Less and That’s a Problem
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Lower flows damage equipment, concentrate waste and stink up neighborhoods; should water conservation focus shift outdoors?

Corrosion is evident in this wastewater pipe from Los Angeles County.Californians have been doing an exceptional job reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive the most recent drought when water districts were required to meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable, Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water in the future.

  • Read more
Western Water February 28, 2019 California Groundwater Map Layperson's Guide to Flood Management Gary Pitzer

Southern California Water Providers Think Local in Seeking to Expand Supplies
WESTERN WATER SIDEBAR: Los Angeles and San Diego among agencies pursuing more diverse water portfolio beyond imports

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination Plant in Carlsbad last December marked 40 billion gallons of drinking water delivered to San Diego County during its first three years of operation. The desalination plant provides the county with more than 50 million gallons of water each day.Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.

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.)

  • Read more
Western Water February 28, 2019 Groundwater Education Bundle Gary Pitzer

Imported Water Built Southern California; Now Santa Monica Aims To Wean Itself Off That Supply
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Santa Monica is tapping groundwater, rainwater and tighter consumption rules to bring local supply and demand into balance

The Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (SMURRF) treats dry weather urban runoff to remove pollutants such as sediment, oil, grease, and pathogens for nonpotable use.Imported water from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on 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.

  • Read more
Tour November 6, 2019 - 7:30am - November 7, 2019 - 6:30pm Nick Gray Central Coast Tour Highlights Dam Removal & River Restoration, Ocean Desal and Innovative Recycling Project Using Ag Runoff Explore Airborne Mapping of Seawater Intrusion on Central Coast Tour November 6-7 Central Coast Tour Explores Solutions to Water Resource Challenges That Offer Lessons for California

Central Coast Tour 2019
Field Trip - November 6-7

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.

  • Paul Sorensen Presentation
  • Keith Van Der Maaten Presentation
  • Andy Fisher Presentation
  • Jeff Cattaneo Presentation
  • Pure Water Monterey Presentation
  • Read more
Western Water October 5, 2018 Douglas E. Beeman

What Would You Do About Water If You Were California’s Next Governor?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Survey at Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit elicits a long and wide-ranging potential to-do list

There’s going to be a new governor in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.

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.

  • Read more
Western Water April 6, 2018 California Water Bundle Gary Pitzer

Statewide Water Bond Measures Could Have Californians Doing a Double-Take in 2018
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Two bond measures, worth $13B, would aid flood preparation, subsidence, Salton Sea and other water needs

San Joaquin Valley bridge rippled by subsidence  California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.

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.

  • Read more
Tour October 8, 2015 - October 9, 2015

Southern California Tour 2015
Field Trip (past)

Diamond Valley Lake. Photo by MWD

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.

  • Draft Itinerary
  • SoCal Tour Brochure
  • SAWPA Brine Line (134MB)
  • Read more
Tour October 9, 2014 Images from the Russian River tour

Russian River Tour 2014
Field Trip (past)

The 2014 tour took place October 9-10.

This 2-day, 1-night tour travels the Russian River watershed, a microcosm of water management issues in the West.

  • David Keller's presentation
  • Joshua Fuller's presentation
  • Matt Brennan's presentation
  • Read more
Video May 27, 2014

Restoring a River: Voices of the San Joaquin

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.

  • Read more
Video May 27, 2014

A Climate of Change: Water Adaptation Strategies

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.

  • Read more
Video May 27, 2014

Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a Resource

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.

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Product May 21, 2014

Go With the Flow: A Storm Water Pollution Prevention Message

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.

  • Read more
Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water
Published 2006

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.

  • Read more
Publication May 20, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to California Wastewater
Published 2013

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.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Water Recycling and Title 22

Cambria Sustainable Water Facility, which recycles wastewater into an eventual drinking-water source. Title 22 of California’s Code of Regulations refers to state guidelines for how treated and recycled water is discharged and used.

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.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014 Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling Colorado River Shortages Drive Major Advances in Recycled Sewage Water Use

Recycled Water

Image shows samples of cleaned wastewater before and after reverse osmosis filtration at the Pure Water Southern California Demonstration Plant in Carson.All water is naturally recycled and reused as part of the hydrologic cycle. Recycled water is also produced by purifying wastewater for safe use in drinking (potable) water and for non-potable uses such as irrigation.

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.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014 Layperson's Guide to California Wastewater

Wastewater Treatment Process in California

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.

  • Read more
Aquapedia background February 3, 2014 Layperson's Guide to California Water

Grey Water

Grey Water set up

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine January 1, 2013

Viewing Water with a Wide Angle Lens: A Roundtable Discussion
January/February 2013

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine September 1, 2010

Making the Connection: The Water/Energy Nexus
September/October 2010

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine July 1, 2008

A Drought-Proof Supply: The Promise of Recycled Water
July/August 2008

This printed copy of Western Water examines recycled water – its use, the ongoing issues and the prospects it holds for extending water supplies.

  • Read more
Western Water Excerpt July 1, 2008 Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

A Drought-Proof Supply: The Promise of Recycled Water
July/August 2008

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine May 1, 2005

Smart Water Use: Stretching the Urban Supply
May/June 2005

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Excerpt May 1, 2002 Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

Shaping the West: 100 Years of Reclamation Water
May/Jun 2002

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.

  • Read more
Western Water Magazine November 1, 1999

Managing the Colorado River
November/December 1999

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.

  • Read more

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