Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to expand the use of recycled water across California. Senate Bill 31, authored by Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton), allows businesses, homeowners, and public agencies to increase the use of recycled water for irrigation and other non-drinking purposes. The measure aims to reduce the use of potable water for tasks that don’t require it, strengthen the state’s drought resilience, and divert wastewater that would otherwise flow into the ocean.
The law supports California’s goal of using 1.8 million acre-feet of recycled water by 2040, up from about 700,000 acre-feet currently used each year for irrigation, groundwater recharge, and other applications. Recycled water is wastewater that has been treated to meet safety standards for various uses, depending on its intended purpose, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the law will allow parks to expand recycled water use, ease restrictions on its use in decorative water features, protect homeowners’ associations from being forced to install new plumbing systems, and permit food handling and processing companies to use it for toilets, urinals, or outdoor irrigation under certain conditions.
Concord put in massive recycled water plumbing maybe 8 yrs ago – WC and others are just now getting on the bandwagon… putting revenue producing infrastructure instead of conservation and public convenience first… other communities probably did the same unfortunately
more toxins and chemicals for us to drink, but Gavin loves it!
Zone7 injected “Recycled Water” into Groundwater Recharge for many years. Not they are drawing it out and mixing it with the water supply. So some of us are already drinking “Pee Water”, which is the plan for all of us!
The Sacramento waste water treatment plant dumps the treated waste water from 1.6 million people into the Sacramento River 24 hours a day and all the cities along the San Joaquin river also dump treated waste water into the San Joaquin River. So where does the recycled water stop and the recycled, recycled water begin?