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The use of recycled water could expand significantly in California under a new bill introduced this week by state Sen. Jerry McNerney.
McNerney (D-Pleasanton) said the proposed law would help “drought proof” the state by loosening the rules governing how businesses, homes and government agencies use treated wastewater for irrigation and other things, thereby saving precious drinking water for better uses.
“Instead of water wars pitting one region of the state against the other, North versus South, California must develop commonsense solutions that enable us to use the water we have more efficiently,” McNerney said in a news release Feb. 11.
The legislation, Senate Bill 31, is intended to help the state reach its goal of having people use 1.8 million acre-feet of recycled water annually by 2040. Currently, Californians use about 700,000 acre-feet per year, according to McNerney’s announcement.
If approved by the State Legislature and signed by the governor, the bill would expand the use of recycled water in parks, remove regulatory barriers to using it in decorative bodies of water, require homeowner associations to use it to irrigate outdoor common areas and allow food handling and processing facilities to use recycled water in toilets or irrigation, among other things.
The bill is sponsored by WateReuse California, which describes itself as “the nation’s only trade association solely dedicated to advancing laws, policy, funding, and public acceptance of recycled water.”
— Story by Kiley Russell, Bay City News
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How much does a greywater system cost?
Gravity-fed system -1500 -2500.
Pump-fed system – 2000-5000
Simple greywater system – 1000-2500
Complex full-house greywater system – 20,000.
Additional costs may include plumbing and setting up a sprinkler system – 20,000 – 500,000.
According to the forecast more than $234 Billion of capital expenditures are expected over the next 10 years to address municipal water and wastewater pipe network infrastructure.
To pipe the entire state of California for wastewater in public and commercial parks, more than a million miles of pipe?
Good idea, the costs?