As Arizona continues to face a historic water crisis, the state is exploring bold new solutions, including turning reclaimed water into drinking water.
Reclaimed water is the water we use every day to wash dishes, flush toilets, and take showers. Through advanced purification, it can be cleaned and added to a blend to meet drinking water standards and potentially be delivered straight to your tap.
In March, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality approved new rules that allow water providers to begin applying for permits to use purified reclaimed water for direct drinking use — a major step forward in addressing the state’s growing water crisis.
While no city has begun sending this blend of reclaimed water to taps yet, Scottsdale is emerging as a statewide and worldwide leader in the process. Its Water Campus is home to one of the most advanced purification systems in the world and has already been treating recycled water to drinking quality — though that water is currently only used for irrigation or recharging the aquifer.
“We clean it. It’s ultra-pure water that meets drinking water standards,” said Kevin Rose, Interim Senior Director for Scottsdale Water. “The biggest misconception we deal with is the ‘ick’ factor — that it’s not clean.”
Right now, the highly treated water is used to irrigate golf courses, and what’s left is returned to the aquifer where it continues to be naturally filtered. That water can take up to 10 years to return to your tap. The new rules would speed up that process drastically, from a decade to just hours.
With the new rules in place, cities like Scottsdale are now working to meet the added safety, monitoring, and treatment requirements.
Scottsdale hopes to begin sending that blend of purified reclaimed water and current potable water to taps by 2029, setting an example for other Arizona cities looking to future-proof their water supply.
