Benefical Uses of Recycled Water:

• Using recycled water is beneficial to California’s agricultural and landscape irrigation, as well as recharging the groundwater supply.

• Landscape irrigation requires 34% of California’s urban water use and is needed in households, schools, parks, and other outdoor areas.

• 67% of recycled water in California is used for all irrigation services.

• In general, 21% of that is used for landscape irrigation.

• In urban areas, wastewater can be treated to produce enough recycled water to satisfy these demands, thus reducing households’ freshwater demand.

• 40% of California’s water is used on agricultural irrigation and is eventually lost through evapotranspiration.  This is a major issue for farmers who lack enough water to supply their crops.

• Overall, 46% of all recycled water in California is used for agricultural irrigation, and as urban communities continue to expand, more wastewater should be used for the benefit of water-deprived farmers.

• California should be treating wastewater from urban communities in order to provide farmers with water.

• This symbolic relationship between communities and farmers is ideal since recycled water increases crop yields, reduces the use of chemical fertilizers, and is affordable for farmers.

• Finally, groundwater pumping has led to overdrafts, increased groundwater salt concentration, and seawater intrusion into fresh groundwater.

• Using recycled water can help replenish groundwater aquifers that have been extracted by reducing the loss of freshwater, slowing and reducing groundwater overdraft, protecting groundwater aquifers from seawater intrusion, and augmenting water supplies.

   

Drivers of water recycling 

Water scarcity, wastewater disposal, uncertainty in delta exports, conservation plan, and monetary incentives are all the drivers of water recycling.

California is suffering from water scarcity due to their increasing population, migrating immigrants, and high demands for urban, agricultural, and environmental uses. Using recycled water can help mitigate water scarcity by reusing treated wastewater for better water efficiency and water conservation.

Getting rid of wastewater is expensive due to high treatment costs. In order to avoid these, wastewater can be recycled in order to put them to use instead of just getting rid of them completely.

The uncertainty in the delta due to environmental and physical constraints and climate change has created concern for whether or not the delta would be able to provide water throughout Sacramento and San Joaquin. Using recycled water can help reduce the impact of this uncertainty as well as providing a reliable source of water.

Finally, monetary incentives have been given by the state and federal governments such as subsidizes up to twenty-five percent of costs for water recycling projects. This gives firms and agencies even more motivation to recycle water.

Economics of Wastewater Recycling

For areas that are further away from a water body, such as Southern California, wastewater recycling is less expensive than conveyance from the North and desalination.

Wastewater recycling is also much less energy intensive than conveyance and desalination, making it more economically feasible and environmentally friendly considering the high costs associated with energy.

Although installing infrastructure may have high capital costs, more affluent households tend to use more water both indoor and outdoor.  So in theory, those households should be able to afford it, or at least be in a better position to invest in the infrastructure than lower income households.

In certain situations, it may not be economically rational to install the necessary infrastructure for wastewater recycling due to the high costs of construction.  However, moving forward, all new homes and apartment buildings should be built with the proper infrastructure needed to sustain a decentralized wastewater recycling system.