Author Archives: Keith

The Associated Press, October 21, 2022: Colorado’s water quality agency gave unanimous preliminary approval to regulate direct potable reuse — the process of treating sewage and sending it directly to taps without first being dispersed in a larger water body.

Water Finance & Management, June 20, 2022: Water management strategies tend to evolve gradually with slowly changing community needs. That’s rare in California, where continued population growth and prolonged drought exacerbated by climate change have sparked dramatic change, through initiatives such as the Pure Water San Diego program and Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment System, now undergoing final expansion. Further north along the Pacific Coast, Pure Water Soquel is another example of timely, transformative action for a more resilient and reliable water supply.

ENSIA, August 8, 2021: For decades, water officials in San Diego, realizing the city was facing an ever-drier future, have worked to make the idea of what’s known as “direct potable reuse,” or DPR, more palatable to residents. In the 1990s, that turned into an uphill battle. The technology delivers purified wastewater to customers’ faucets without an environmental buffer — such as a groundwater aquifer, river or other go-between — prior to distribution, so opponents labeled it “toilet-to-tap.” The epithet stuck and torpedoed the Southern California city’s water recycling plans.

Counter Punch, April 27, 2021: The Southwestern states, in particular, have faced frequent and ongoing droughts over the past two decades, and traditional water supplies are failing. As groundwater supplies in the region have depleted substantially, rainfall has decreased and the costs of importing water have risen substantially.