The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 1 are not checked yet.
Reclaimed Water Use Regulations in the U.S.: Evaluating Changes and Regional Patterns in Patchwork State Policies from 2004–2023
Open accessAbstract
Water reuse, the beneficial use of highly treated municipal wastewater (reclaimed water), is expanding throughout the United States (U.S.); however, there are currently no federal reclaimed water use regulations, only guidelines. As a result, state policies on reclaimed water vary widely, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding to facilitate coordinated national planning. Our systematic literature review, utilizing an online legal research database, presents an updated overview of U.S. reclaimed water policies from 2004 to 2023. A novel categorization scheme tracks policy changes, highlighting a 38% increase in states regulating reclaimed water between 2004 and 2023. We also created maps of current reclaimed water use regulations across the U.S. including: (1) a national overview of the reclaimed water policy landscape; and (2) documentation of non-food crop and food crop irrigation policies. As of November 2023, 74% of states (37/50) intentionally regulated reclaimed water use. Regions with historically low water scarcity, such as the Midwest, exhibited lower participation rates in reclaimed water regulation than water-scarce regions in the West. Of the 37 states regulating direct reclaimed water use in 2023, all allowed for at least some agricultural uses; 23 permitted non-food and food crop production use, while 14 states have statutory allowances for direct reclaimed water use on non-food crop production. As climate change stresses freshwater resources, our work provides up-to-date information for policymakers to navigate existing reclaimed water use policies.
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Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) is only recently being codified by pioneering states like Colorado and California.
“Furthermore, Direct Potable Reuse (DPR)-treating wastewater to drinking standards without an environmental buffer-is only recently being codified by pioneering states like Colorado [43] and California [44].”
From Navigating Environmental Concerns Confronting U.S. Data Centers Related to Water Quantity and Quality (2026) · cites this paper as [43]
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Cites
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Metadata
- Authors
- Thilmany, E. A., Newton, S., Goeringer, P., & Rosenberg Goldstein, R. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Venue
- Water
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2024-01-19
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 334
- ISSN
- 2073-4441 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4391034653
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 3.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Water (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2016-68007-25064)
- MPowering the State (2016-68007-25064)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water resources management and optimization
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
- Keywords
- reclaimed water, water reuse, state water policy, municipal wastewater, water scarcity, policy change, United States
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