ACWA Testifies, Water Recycling Key Part of California's Comprehensive Solution

Calling recycled water a critical part of a comprehensive water strategy, ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn testified in favor of three federal bills on recycled water projects at a Senate subcommittee hearing April 27.

Quinn said recycling projects contained in the bills would, if fully appropriated, leverage $116.7 million in federal funding with $371.1 million in local funding. The bills include S. 1138 / H.R. 2442, which would amend the Reclamation and Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to expand the Bay Are Regional Water Recycling Program; H.R. 637, the South Orange County Recycled Water Enhancement Act, which would authorize the Bureau of Reclamation to participate in the planning and construction of an advanced water treatment plant and recycled water system; and H.R. 2522, which would authorize Bureau support for the second and third phases of the Calleguas Municipal Water District Recycling Project.  

“Recycling projects like those . . . under consideration here today are an extremely important source of new supply from ACWA’s statewide perspective,” Quinn told members of the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “To the extent their implementation can be significantly accelerated, these projects can help combat the immediate crisis in California arising from drought and excessively restrictive regulations on water supply under the Endangered Species Act.”