In 2010, the California Legislature enacted Senate Bill (SB) 918 (Chapter 700, Statutes of 2010), which added sections 13560-13569 (Division 7, Chapter 7.3) to the Water Code regarding potable reuse of recycled water.  SB 918 defined the term “direct potable reuse” and directed the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to investigate the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse (DPR).  The responsibility for completing and submitting the final report to the Legislature was transferred to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) on July 1, 2014. SB 918 required that an expert panel be convened for the purposes of advising the State Water Board on public health issues and scientific and technical matters regarding the investigation.

In 2013, the Legislature enacted SB 322 (Chapter 637, Statutes of 2013), which amended Chapter 7.3 to require that an advisory group subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act be convened to advise the expert panel and the State Water Board in the development of the feasibility report.  SB 322 additionally tasked the expert panel to (1) assess whether additional areas of research are needed to be able to establish uniform regulatory criteria for DPR, (2) recommend an approach for accomplishing any additional needed research in a timely manner, and (3) provide the recommendations to the State Water Board.  Per SB 322, the State Water Board must summarize the recommendations of the Expert Panel in a report by June 30, 2016.  The expert panel accomplished this task and has submitted the memorandum dated June 30, 2016.  The State Water Board posted the memorandum to fulfill the requirement in SB 322 at this link: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinkingwater/documents/recycled_water/ep_research_rec.pdf

The State Water Board Division of Drinking Water will incorporate the key recommendations of the advisory group and the expert panel related to the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria, as well as the other information that must be considered as specified in SB 918 and SB 322 in the Report to Legislature.  A draft of the Report to Legislature will be provided for public comment on September 1, 2016, as required by SB 322.  Public announcement of the availability of the State Water Board’s draft of the Report to Legislature on the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria for DPR will be provided when it is posted.

More information regarding the expert panel is posted on the Division of Drinking Water webpage:  http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinkingwater/RW_SWA_DPRexpertpanel.shtml

If you would like to be notified by email, please subscribe to  “Recycled Surface Water Augmentation & Direct Potable Reuse” under “Drinking Water” listserve category on this page: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/resources/email_subscriptions/swrcb_subscribe.shtml