Overview
Direct potable reuse (DPR), whereby a community directly treats wastewater to be used for drinking water, is listed in the Colorado Water Plan as a strategy to address the state’s water gap. DPR is not currently practiced in the state of Colorado but is not prohibited. Currently, no federal or state regulations exist to ensure that DPR will reliably produce safe potable water. At the invitation of stakeholders, the department has been working with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, engineering firms, researchers, and stakeholders to explore DPR in Colorado since 2014. The group developed guidelines that lay a strong foundation ready to build upon to develop a DPR rule. Some stakeholders, including Denver Water, piloted DPR projects and garnered positive media coverage. Done correctly, DPR is a safe and viable option for drinking water.
Stakeholders asked the state to initiate a stakeholder process to begin developing a DPR-specific rule this year and offered funding to support facilitation.
Stakeholders asked the state to initiate a stakeholder process to begin developing a DPR-specific rule this year and offered funding to support facilitation.
This work has been enthusiastically championed and funded by this stakeholder group that includes several public utilities including the City of Castle Rock, City of Aurora, Denver Water, South Metro Wastewater, plus the Colorado Water Congress. Stakeholders estimate it may take until the 2030s before multiple utilities build DPR treatment systems, but utilities need regulations in place far sooner than that to support adequate planning, conceptual treatment designs, and financing. Additionally, a robust DPR rule will help build public trust in the process. The current regulations do not provide for adequate treatment needed to protect public health in a DPR situation. One concern the department has is that the lack of a DPR regulation creates a vulnerability. If a community in a drought situation insists on implementing DPR, but the department would not have an adequate framework to support and safely oversee the situation. Such a situation could then erode public confidence in DPR for the foreseeable future.
A crisis is not the right time to try and figure out the best way to approach DPR.
Timeline
Without state regulation, the public may be less inclined to drink DPR water, and the challenge of addressing the state water gap could be further challenged. Stakeholders applied for and won a grant to hire a facilitator to support a stakeholder process for regulatory development starting this winter through 2022. The department therefore intends to work with the stakeholder community and initiate the effort to develop DPR regulations. In other words, we would draft a proposed rule through this stakeholder effort and coordinate with the Water Quality Control Commission regarding scheduling a rulemaking. The Department estimates that the rule development process may take about 18 to 24 months. The result will be a rule that requires systems to follow design, treatment, and monitoring requirements and ensure appropriate public health protection. A DPR rule would fit into the current regulatory structure and is not expected to be fundamentally different from other rulemakings we’ve done in the past.
Ultimately, a DPR rule will give communities the needed platform to be resilient against a changing climate and growing population while also ensuring public health and trust.
For more information, please contact Tyson Ingels at 303-692-3002 or tyson.ingels@state.co.us.
