Arizona depends on both surface water and groundwater sources for its drinking water, but persistent drought in the western U.S. has led to record-low reservoir levels, compelling Arizona to cut its Colorado River water usage. This continuing scarcity underscores the urgent need to find new water sources to support municipal and agricultural needs. To address this need, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has been tasked with expanding water reuse programs, including creating regulations to allow treated municipal wastewater to be safely used as drinking water. As a result, ADEQ is updating its regulations to broaden the use of treated wastewater for drinking purposes, particularly for facilities under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This initiative aims to enhance the resilience and sustainability of Arizona’s water resources. While current rules already permit certain types of potable water reuse, a clearly defined, state-led regulatory structure is needed to enable water providers to pursue these practices responsibly, ensuring both environmental protection and public health standards are maintained across Arizona.
Originally enacted by Congress in 1974, the SDWA aims to safeguard public health by overseeing the quality of the nation’s public drinking water. Amended in 1986 and 1996, this law mandates various measures to protect drinking water and its sources, including rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and groundwater wells. The SDWA empowers the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish national health-based standards for drinking water to defend against contaminants, whether naturally occurring or man-made. The EPA, alongside states and local water systems, collaborates to ensure these standards are consistently upheld.
Advanced Water Purification Program
The Advanced Water Purification (AWP) program, a new permitting process aligned with the Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) will be added to the Arizona Administrative Code (A.A.C.), with ADEQ aiming to structure this process similarly to other permits like Aquifer Protection Permits. AWP applicants will need to demonstrate legal authority to implement an Enhanced Source Control program, which includes oversight of upstream dischargers, review of new connections in the sewershed, enforcement of local limits, mandatory discharger reporting, and compliance capabilities. An effective enhanced source control program identifies contaminants of concerns (COCs) from nondomestic sources, determines where COCs enter the collection system, and enforces limits for applicable pollutant dischargers.
Traditional source control programs, such as the National Pretreatment Program (NPP), protect receiving waters under the federal Clean Water Act and prevent pollutants from entering a water reclamation facility (WRF) that may interfere or escape WRF treatment processes. The purpose of enhanced source control for AWP is similar to NPP; except, the goal is to condition wastewater such that it can be treated to drinking water standards and not just the protection of WRF infrastructure or to make waters fishable and swimmable as required by the CWA. ADEQ is proposing an enhanced source control program to manage COCs from non-domestic sources. The COCs which will be controlled under the AWP program fall into three categories:
- SDWA Regulated Contaminants
- Regulated under the US EPA SDWA
- AWP Specific Contaminants
- Identified as potential risks within the AWP program due to their potential health impacts
- Performance Based Indications
- Surrogates used to monitor treatment performance
The WRFs must establish communication with dischargers, track chemical use, and investigate any chemical peaks in the collection system. The enhanced source control program also includes developing an early warning system to monitor chemical peaks and identify potential risks to the advanced wastewater treatment facilities (AWTF). Before full implementation of the AWP program, pilot testing of the AWTF processes will be conducted for verifying the technical and operational capacity of the proposed treatment system. The pilot study, lasting at least one year, will help assess the performance of the treatment processes and ensure the finished water meets the required standards. The results from the pilot study will guide the full-scale implementation of the AWP and ensure the effectiveness of the treatment methods.
How Does This Impact My Facility?
To ensure wastewater meets drinking water standards, AWTF applying for the AWP program must monitor the wastewater entering their systems. If your facility discharges into an AWTF participating in the AWP program, additional reporting, monitoring, and inspection requirements may be implemented. This could lead to stricter discharge limits to help AWTF meet AWP standards. Enforcement may include requiring permits for industrial pretreatment programs (for non-domestic sources), permits for septage haulers, and educating commercial establishments and residents. Since new dischargers and chemicals are continually introduced, developing and regularly reviewing local limits is a critical component of AWP, enabling risks to be identified and managed for successful program implementation.
As a result of the AWP, any facility that sends water to an AWTF could be subject to more stringent and robust monitoring and reporting requirements. Proposed rules relating to the AWP program are currently in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stage, and will need to go through several rounds of review before adoption. Currently, a public comment period is open from November 1 to December 2 and a virtual public hearing will be held on December 2 at 9 a.m. MST. More information for submitting public comments and the public hearing can be found here.
If you would like to discuss these new regulations and how they may impact your facility, please email Thomas Pederson in Trinity’s Phoenix office or call 425.232.9530.
