AWWA REUSE52119

Texas is at an historical crossroads. The era of plentiful water, when needs could be readily met with new water supply development, is coming to a close. Texas currently has approximately 16 million acre-feet per year or 14.5 billion gallons of water a day, of dependable conventional freshwater supplies from its surface and groundwater sources such as manmade reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. Even if all economically feasible reservoirs are developed and groundwater was withdrawn at its average rate of recharge, only another three to five billion gallons a day of dependable supply could be developed. The ultimate source of all fresh water is precipitation, but when it does not rain, many perspectives can change. In the mid 1990s, two events occurred in Texas, one planned and one not, which resulted in an increased focus on water issues. The first was the update of the Texas Water Plan through a consensus process involving the State's planning, environmental, regulatory, and wildlife agencies. The second was a drought of short duration in 1996; a drought that saw more than 340 communities ration water, severe crop loss, and widespread wildfires. These two events helped focus Texas' citizens, agencies, and legislators alike on the need for revisions to the way Texas looks at water supply, drought management, and the need for water conservation, reuse, and other innovative technologies such as desalting, rainwater harvesting, brush control, and aquifer storage and recovery. The result was a set of legislative, policy, and regulatory actions that will continue to have dramatic impact on water conservation, drought management, and water reuse practices in Texas. Reuse of treated effluent continues to grow and much of the new legislative and regulatory activity involves water reuse. The purpose of this paper is to look at the current status of reuse in Texas, examine the potential of reuse in the future, and briefly describe some of the institutional and technical activities that will affect reuse. Includes figures.