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California was the first state to implement water reuse regulations in the UnitedStates and adopted its first criteria in 1918. That state's regulations have beenrevised several times since then, and are currently under revision once again. Inrecent years, other states have adopted criteria as water reclamation and reusehave been identified as key components of total water resources management. Whilethere are no federal regulations directly addressing water reuse, the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized the value of water reuse andpublished guidelines in 1992. Trends affecting regulatory development arepresented in this paper. A number of states have or are developing water reuseregulations or guidelines. Many states have a structure with separate agenciesresponsible for regulating wastewater and potable water. When moving towardsestablishing water reuse regulation, states have been confronted with the need toidentify the appropriate entity within the existing structure to establish andenforce water reuse regulations. Comparisons of various structures are presented.The existing or proposed state criteria vary considerably both in types of reuseapplications allowed and in their respective treatment and reclaimed waterquality requirements. Existing regulations from several states that havedeveloped comprehensive criteria, such as Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon,Texas, and Washington, vary for reuse applications. The EPA water reuseguidelines address a number of similar reuse applications. A comparison ofvarious standards for reuse applications is presented which leads to a discussionof the need or appropriateness of developing federal regulations for water reuse.Implementation challenges accompany the development of new regulations and raisenew questions. The advantages and disadvantages of national standards will bepresented in light of the potential impact on states that currently have criteriaand those that have no criteria. Professional organizations such as the AmericanWater Works Association (AWWA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) havesupported reuse in a variety of ways. These efforts and their impacts are alsodiscussed in this paper. Includes 9 references, tables.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2000 Number of Pages: 13File Size: 1 file , 210 KB