Recycling Treated Municipal Wastewater for Industrial Water Use

Overview
There are no federal regulations governing water reclamation and reuse in the United
States; regulations are developed and implemented at the state government level. The
lack of federal regulations has resulted in differing standards among states that have
developed water reuse regulations. In the 1990s, several states adopted or revised their
respective regulations, and it was common practice to base reuse criteria on those of states
that had comprehensive regulations, guidelines, and background information to support
them. The Guidelines for Water Reuse [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1992], which
were published in 1992 (revised in 2004), were also used as a resource by states that had
limited or no regulations or guidelines. Since then, there has been increased interest in
water reuse in several states that previously did not have water reuse regulations.
At present, no states have regulations that cover all potential uses of reclaimed water, but
several states have extensive regulations that prescribe requirements for a wide range of
end uses of the reclaimed water. Other states have regulations or guidelines that focus
on land treatment of wastewater effluent, emphasizing additional treatment or effluent
disposal rather than beneficial reuse, even though the effluent may be used for irrigation
of agricultural sites or public access lands.
Minnesota is one of several states that have not developed state water reuse criteria.
Currently, the State of Minnesota uses California’s Water Recycling Criteria [State of
California, 2000a] to evaluate water reuse projects on a case-by-case basis, as summarized
in Table 1.
The status and summary of water reclamation and reuse regulations and guidelines in
the United States as of 2004 have been documented in the EPA Guidelines for Water Reuse
[U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2004] and are provided in Table 2. The absence
of state regulations and guidelines for specific reuse applications does not necessarily
prohibit those applications; many states evaluate specific types of water reuse on a caseby-case
basis. Based on the data in Table 2, 25 states have adopted regulations regarding
the use of reclaimed water, 16 states have guidelines or design standards, and 9 states
have no regulations or guidelines. These data are somewhat misleading, as they include
regulations and guidelines directed at land disposal of effluent or land application of
wastewater intended primarily as a disposal mechanism rather than beneficial reuse.
The number of states with regulations or guidelines for each type of reuse is summarized
in Table 3, which has been adapted from the U.S. EPA Guidelines for Water Reuse. As
indicated in Table 3, agricultural and landscape irrigation represent the reclaimed water
uses most commonly regulated, and many states have implemented regulations that
apply only to those types of use. As noted above, these data include state regulations
that pertain to land disposal of effluent or land application of wastewater intended
primarily as a disposal mechanism rather than beneficial reuse.
Craddock Consulting Engineers B-1
In Association with CDM & James Crook
WWReuse Tm1_Appendix B_Regulatory.doc