As the White House and Congress negotiate new investments to modernize America’s infrastructure and stimulate a large-scale economic recovery, it is important to remember that investment in the infrastructure we cannot see – the infrastructure that supplies us with clean and safe water – is critical to our ability to build communities that are modern, resilient, and poised for economic growth.
During Water Week 2021, April 25 – May 1, Congress will hear from community leaders about the need to elevate water infrastructure funding as a national priority. At the core of creating a safe and resilient water supply is ensuring that the right water is available in the right place for the right use, all the time. For this reason, Congress must invest in water reuse infrastructure and related federal programs and policies to give communities and businesses the tools and resources they need to rebound from the pandemic and build resilience to drought, flooding, and other impacts of climate change.
Investment in water reuse, also known as water recycling, allows communities to intentionally capture wastewater, stormwater, saltwater, or graywater and clean it as needed for a designated beneficial freshwater purpose, such as drinking, industrial processes, irrigation, groundwater replenishment, and watershed restoration. Water reuse is a national solution that can be tailored to address a variety of local water resource management challenges.
Across the country, water, wastewater, and stormwater managers are turning to water recycling as a central feature in innovative, integrated approaches to solve their unique water management challenges, including challenges brought on by climate change. In the West and South, the integration of water recycling has been driven by water supply challenges and the need for drought-resilient supplies.
Elsewhere in the country, such as in the Pacific Northwest and in cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, water recycling has been used to help manage stormwater, address water quality challenges, and relieve overburdened combined sewer-stormwater management systems. Water reuse is also helping communities along our coasts manage sea level rise and saltwater intrusion by replenishing depleted coastal aquifers. Quite simply, water reuse is an essential strategy for building resilient communities and businesses in the face of climate change and uncertain weather events.
Examples of the link between water reuse and economic resilience exist in each region of the country. The Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Nevada, for example, is home to the Tesla Gigafactory and Switch and Google data centers, where a new water recycling project will provide 1.3 billion gallons of recycled water annually to this clean tech and advanced manufacturing center. The project will support advanced manufacturing facilities and sustain an estimated 20,000 new jobs. In Idaho, water reuse sustains a $28 billion agricultural sector by providing resilient irrigation resources without putting local water supplies at risk. Elsewhere, water recycling is sustaining local recreational and tourism jobs such as in the ski and golf sectors.
To truly help America Build Back Better and ensure jobs creation, investment in water recycling is essential. We urge Congress to include robust funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Alternative Water Source Grants program and the Bureau of Reclamation’s Title XVI-WIIN Water Reclamation and Reuse Competitive Grants Program. Both programs provide critical funding to help communities create resilient water systems and industries expand and create jobs. Increased funding for the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grants Program and the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Programs will also help communities solve a wide range of complex water management challenges.
We also urge Congress to establish a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to encourage industry to retrofit facilities to accept recycled water onsite. Approximately 45 percent of municipal drinking water is used for industrial purposes, from manufacturing every-day products to cooling data centers.
In the final infrastructure and jobs package, our national commitment to water reuse has to be strong and our investment must be substantial to make a meaningful impact. We urge Congress to invest in America’s resiliency so that all our communities can rebound from the pandemic and secure our water future allowing us to face the challenges ahead and continue to thrive.
Gilbert Trejo is Chief Technical Officer of El Paso Water in El Paso, Texas and President of the WateReuse Association.
Patricia Sinicropi is the Executive Director of the WateReuse Association, which represents utilities that recycled water, businesses that support the development of recycled water, and institutions with an interest in water recycling.
