Click the link to read the article on the LAInst.com website (Erin Stone). Here’s an excerpt:
October 7, 2024
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. Mickey Chaudhuri, treatment and water quality manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), said the new rules are “a gamechanger.”
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…ecause these new regulations allow recycled water to be put directly into the local water system, more cities can recycle water for drinking that don’t happen to have an underground basin, or don’t have enough space in groundwater basins because of past pollution, which is the case for cities such as L.A. and Santa Monica.