PUB00124

• Year: 1996
• Title: Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling
• CWCB Section: Water Conservation & Drought Planning
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to Water Recycling
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

Future Use

About $1 billion in water recycling capital investments
are underway throughout California, and DWR
estimates a potential for recycling more than 1 A
million acre-feet by the year 2020. If the 2020 goal is
met, water recycling will serve more than 10 percent
of the statewide urban water needs. If the public
continues to support expanded use of recycled water,
funding may be provided for additional treatment
projects and the infrastructure needed to store and
transport recycled water to the consumer. Although
taxpayers have supported the construction and
ongoing maintenance of numerous public works
projects such as the SWP (which supplies up to 2.4
million acre-feet of water a year to southern Califor-
nia, the Central Valley and the Bay Area), it has yet
to be seen whether they will support large scale
funding for water recycling projects.

Water recycling is expected to play an integral part
in CALF ED's Bay-Delta solutions as well. CALFED's
Water Use Efficiency Program calls for additional
recycling of 633,000 acre-feet of water annually
in urban areas by 2020. CALFED also plans to
expand state and federal water recycling programs
by assisting local and regional water agencies
with planning, technical and financing aspects of
their water recycling programs and supporting
agencies in meeting water recycling provisions
outlined by the state.

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By enhancing recycled water use, three main objectives
of the CALF ED process are met: water supply
reliability is improved due to an expanded supply;
water quality is improved by removing wastewater dis-
charges from the watershed, improving the timing of
diversions and allowing higher quality water to remain
in the system for downstream use; and ecosystem
restoration objectives are achieved by replacing the
overall quantity of water diverted from the Delta.

In several recent projects, public perception has
proven an impediment to the use of recycled water in
potable uses. More public education and outreach
programs may be the key to making recycled water a
readily accepted potable water supply.

However, water recycling is only one of the tools avail-
able to help solve the disparity between growing water
demand and lagging supplies. Not only must water
supplies be increased and existing supplies be man-
aged more elticiently, but demand must be reduced
in this era of water shortages.

Although water use efficiency reduces demand and
complements water recycling, the push to pursue
water use efficiency rises and falls with water avail.
ability. Property managed, water recycling can help
ensure quantity and quality of the water supply for
future generations - both in wet years and dry years.

Water recycling is part
of CALFED 's proposed
solution for a Delta fix.

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