L.A.’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, recently outlined the city’s bold plan to recycle 100 percent of its wastewater by 2035 and subsequently reduce the amount of water presently imported.  Although three out of the four wastewater facilities currently recycle 100 percent of their wastewater, the largest facility, Hyperion, which collects 81 percent of the city’s total wastewater, only recycles 27 percent.  This equates to only 2 percent of the city’s water supply coming from recycled water.  The mayor’s administration says that figure can reach 35 percent if the city would use the effluent that is currently dumped into the ocean to […]

  California is one step closer to making it easier for wineries and breweries in the state to have onsite use and treatment of recycled water.  State Senator Scott Wiener recently proposed a bill that would create the regulations necessary for the industries to treat and reuse water onsite.  According to SF Bay News, the regulations would be developed by the State Water Board in collaboration with the California Department of Public Heath’s Food and Drug Branch and “would require water quality monitoring, notification and public information requirements, and reporting annually to the CDPH.”[1] The use of water in wineries […]

In the United States, we often talk about increased concerns about water shortages, but we are not alone in this predicament.  According to the World Health Organization, in 2017, “Over two billion people worldwide lack[ed] access to safe drinking water.”[1]  Many countries live with circumstances much more dire than the United States.  Israel, a country whose landscape is 70 percent desert, has found a way to successfully navigate the challenges of living in such conditions by treating and reusing 90 percent of its wastewater. Of course, Israel’s situation is very different from that of the U.S. politically, geographically and socially.  […]

In recent years as concerns over water shortages have consistently persisted, Californians have often pinned their hopes on higher levels of rain or snowfall to “to fill the reservoirs and replenish the groundwater basins that serve as the water supply for cities and farms.”[1] This reality has increased awareness and conservation efforts throughout the state; however, many have long felt that conservation, alone, cannot adequately address the water scarcity.  Water recycling programs have not been an option, though, “due to a lack of state standards on how to permit on-site water reuse systems.”[2] To address the lacking standards, Senator Scott […]

If you’re looking for a city committed to sustainability, it would be hard to find one more committed than Santa Monica, California.  Since 1994 with the adoption of the first Sustainable City Plan, laws and programs enacted must meet the requirements of the city’s goals, with more recent aggressive goals being, “to achieve water self-sufficiency by 2020, zero waste production by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.”[1]  Toward that end, “all new construction, residential and commercial, must include rooftop solar systems and be “net zero” energy.”[2]  New developments must also meet a “water neutrality ordinance that sets limits for water […]