Using Research for Regulatory Development: Direct Potable Reuse in California

In several places throughout the world, water scarcity is driving communities to pursue new water resources such as the potable reuse of wastewater. The State of California has long been a leader in the field of indirect potable reuse, where purified effluents are routed through environmental buffers (e.g., aquifers or surface water reservoirs) before distribution to consumers. The final frontier is direct potable reuse (DPR), which eliminates the need for the environment and allows water to be sent directly to distribution. DPR has the potential to expand the geographic region where potable reuse can be pursued and potentially decrease the overall cost of distributing water. This practice, however, removes many of the safeguards inherent in passing water through an aquifer or reservoir. To protect public health, direct potable reuse will need to compensate for the loss of these benefits. This talk discusses research that California’s regulatory bodies funded to address knowledge gaps and inform their development of the DPR regulations. The two research studies - conducted by a collaboration of industry and academic partners - focused on the question of pathogen control and how to determine what level of treatment is needed to protect public health in direct potable reuse.

Speakers: Brian Pecson and Brie Post, Trussell Technologies