2004 Guidelines for Water Reuse

In an effort to help meet growing demands being placed on available water supplies, many communities throughout the U.S. and the world are turning to water reclamation and reuse. Water reclamation and reuse offer an effective means of conserving our limited high-quality freshwater supplies while helping to meet the ever growing demands for water. For many years, effluent discharges have been accepted as an important source for maintaining minimum stream flows. The investment in treatment technologies required to meet restrictive discharge limits has lead an increasing number of industries and communities to consider other uses for their treated wastewater effluents as a means to recover at least a part of this investment. Further, as sources of water supplies have become limited, there has been greater use and acceptance of reclaimed wastewater effluents as an alternative source of water for a wide variety of applications, including landscape and agricultural irrigation, toilet and urinal flushing, industrial processing, power plant cooling, wetland habitat creation, restoration and maintenance, and groundwater recharge. In some areas of the country, water reuse and dual water systems with purple pipe for distribution of reclaimed water have become fully integrated into local water supplies. The "2004 Guidelines for Water Reuse" examines opportunities for substituting reclaimed water for potable water supplies where potable water quality is not required. It presents and summarizes recommended water reuse guidelines, along with supporting information, as guidance for the benefit of the water and wastewater utilities and regulatory agencies, particularly in the U.S. The document updates the 1992 Guidelines document by incorporating information on water reuse that has been developed since the 1992 document was issued. This revised edition also expands coverage of water reuse issues and practices in other countries.