State Board to Consider Amendment to Recycled Water Policy
The State Water Resources Control Board on Oct. 16 will consider adoption of an amendment to its Recycled Water Policy that would add monitoring requirements for constituents of emerging concern (CECs).
CECs are a broad class of substances including pharmaceuticals and body care products that can be present in minute amounts in wastewater. In 2009, the State Water Board convened a science advisory panel to provide guidance on possible actions related to monitoring CECs in recycled water. The advisory panel recommended monitoring specific CECs in recycled water used for groundwater recharge reuse. The panel did not recommend monitoring of CECs for recycled water used for landscape irrigation, but recommended monitoring of some surrogates in such recycled water.
In May, staff with the State Water Board circulated the proposed amendment for public review and written comment. In June, staff sent the proposed amendment to scientific peer reviewers for review. State Water Board staff considered the written comments submitted by both the public and scientific peer reviewers and made revisions to the proposed amendment.
That proposed amendment with its revisions will be considered by the board Oct. 16. Among the proposed revisions is a provision that if monitoring results indicate that additional monitoring is required after treatment, the Regional Water Board shall consult with the Department of Public Health and “revise the Monitoring and Reporting Program as appropriate.”
Written comments on the revisions made to the May 2012 draft are due on Oct. 9 at noon. ACWA, in conjunction with WateReuse and California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), is working on drafting a comment letter on the proposed amendment. The proposed amendment and its revision are available here.