1. Salt and Nutrient Management Plans
Recycled Water Policy
Salt and Nutrient Management Plans
Ken Harris
Manager, Regulatory Section
State Water Resources Control Board
ACWA Spring Conference 2010
May 5, 2010

2. California Water Supply Challenges
Limited supply
Climate change effects
Increasing water demand
Residential use
Industrial use
Agricultural use
Aquatic ecosystem needs
California is a big state with a large water demand. It has a large agricultural economy, a growing population, and an industrial sector – all of which consume water. The water diversion necessary to support these demands have effects on aquatic ecosystems, creating a tension between environmental protection and delivery of needed water supplies. This tension is not likely to lessen in the future. Climate change will most likely reduce the snow pack in the Sierra, upon which much of the state depends for augmenting surface water reservoirs. California’s population is likely to increase. And agriculture will remain a large industry in California.

3. Ways to Meet These Challenges
Water use efficiency
Agriculture
Urban
Water right transfer
Urban runoff management
Infiltration of storm water to groundwater
Protection of recharge areas
Storage/Conveyance/Conjunctive Use
Surface water
Groundwater
Improved conveyance
Desalination
Water recycling
The California Water Plan Update provides a plan for meeting these challenges. The principal methods are water use efficiency; urban runoff management; conjunctive use of surface water storage, groundwater storage, and conveyance systems; desalination, and water recycling.

4. Recycled Water Use 450 – 580 Thousand Acre-feet Year (2002)
In 2002, about half a million acre-feet of recycled water from municipal wastewater treatment plants was recycled. The State Water Board will conduct a survey this year to update this figure. Of this use, about half is used for agricultural irrigation. The rest is used for landscape irrigation, groundwater recharge, and various other uses, such as cooling.
450 – 580 Thousand Acre-feet Year (2002)

5. Potential Recycled Water Use
The 2009 California Water Plan Update estimates that between 1.85 and 2.25 million acre-feet per year of recycled water can be produced and used by 2030.
Source: 2009 California Water Plan Update

6. Challenges to Increasing Recycled Water Use
Infrastructure costs
Water quality concerns
Public perception
Policy/Regulatory requirements
There are challenges to doing this. Constructing recycled water production facilities is not cheap and distribution systems can be expensive, because they often must be constructed within an existing infrastructure.
There are also water quality concerns. Every time water is reused, it becomes degraded. Water imported to southern California often has received discharges from agricultural operations and wastewater treatment plants. This water is used for municipal supply, where it is further degraded. Although recycled water production facilities remove many of the pollutants in the water, salts usually remain, and some constituents are resistant to biological treatment. Hence, recycled water may not be of adequate quality for some crops and landscape plants and it may affect groundwater quality.
Recycled water has received a high degree of public acceptance in California. The public is seeing recycled water as necessary for meeting water demands. This acceptance, however, is not universal. Recycled water agencies must be vigilant to ensure that their product is adequately disinfected and that no one becomes sick. A single case could set back the progress made in gaining public acceptance.
The agencies that regulate recycled water, principally the Water Boards and the California Department of Public Health, have the responsibility of establishing requirements to ensure that water is recycled in a way that is protective of public health and the quality of surface water and groundwater. Keeping our plans, policies, and regulations up to date, so that these requirements are clear, has been challenge for us to do within our existing resources.

7. State Water Board Policies and Permits
Recycled Water Policy (Feb. 2009)
Statewide General Waste Discharge Requirements-Landscape Irrigation Permit (July 2009)
But we have been working on this. The State Water Board recently adopted statewide general waste discharge requirements for landscape irrigation uses of municipal recycled water. This fulfilled a requirement of Assembly Bill The general waste discharge requirements provide a streamlined process for permitting the use of recycled for landscape irrigation.
Before that, the State Water Board adopted the Recycled Water Policy. I will discuss the elements of this policy and what the Water Boards are doing to implement it.

8. Recycled Water Policy Goals and mandates for recycled water use
Salt/nutrient management plans
Landscape irrigation
Groundwater recharge
Antidegradation analysis procedures
Constituents of emerging concern
Incentives
The policy establishes some incentives for increasing recycled water and storm water use. 8 8

9. Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
For all groundwater basins
Stakeholders prepare the salt/nutrient management plans
Regional Boards adopt implementation plans based on the salt/nutrient management plans as basin plan amendments
The policy requires that these be prepared for all groundwater basins in California and that they be prepared by local stakeholders within five years from the approval date of the Recycled Water Policy. Once the stakeholders complete the plans, they are to be submitted to the Regional Water Boards. The Regional Water Boards have one year from receipt of the plans to consider adopting the regulatory elements of the plans as basin plan amendments.

10. Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
Plans must include:
Implementation plan
Monitoring plan, including constituents of emerging concern
CEQA analysis
Scientific peer review (H&S Code Sec )
Plans must consider:
All sources of salts and nutrients
Basin hydrogeology
Recycled water use and storm water recharge
The salt/nutrient management plans must include implementation plans and a monitoring plans, including monitoring for constituents of emerging concern. They must also include a CEQA analyses.
While developing the plans, stakeholders must consider all sources of salts and nutrients, basin hydrogeology, recycled water use, and storm water recharge.
Scientific Peer review

11. Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
State Water Board staff preparing draft document templates for Regional Boards’ basin planning process (May 10, 2010 draft release)
Purpose is to streamline process
Documents will create a standardize basin plan framework, but allow for regional flexibility
Documents content will be linked to ensure they support next step in basin planning process, and inform Regional Boards and stakeholders

12. Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
Documents designed to accommodate range of basin and salt/nutrient plan complexity
Can accommodate additional water quality issues
Documents include:
Standardized basin plan list of ground water basins and associated beneficial uses
Basin plan amendment in table format
Environmental analysis with check list
Regional Water Board Staff Report
Suggested S/N plan table of contents to support the Regional Board’s process.

13. Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
Envision 3 types of basin plan amendments, characteristics include:
Individual Plan-basin large in size, complex land-use, heavily used, water quality threatened or currently impaired.
High Saline Plan-coastal basins with high TDS not currently used as a source of water, and interior saline basin (SB Policy 88-63)
No Threat Plan-basins with minimal or no known current threat to water quality-address all within a Region with single basin plan amendment

14. Future Activities
State Water Board consideration of recommendations from constituents of emerging concern (CEC) advisory panel -planned for Nov 2010
Continue working with DWR to allow Prop 84 funds to be used for development of salt/nutrient management plans
Collection of information on recycled water use
State Water Board Information Item
Planned for July 6, 2010
Implementation of the Recycled Water Policy
Status of Salt/Nutrient Management Plans
Upcoming activities for the State Water Board this years include consideration of the Scientific Advisory Panel CEC recommendations, once they are finalized. Staff will review the recommendations and provide its own recommendation to the State Water Board for consideration.
Stakeholders have initiated efforts to develop salt/nutrient management plans. The State Water Board has been developing templates to assist the stakeholders and the Regional Water Board in this effort.
The State Water Board will also be conducting a survey this year to evaluate how much recycled water is being used in California. Water recycling agencies should support this survey by providing the requested information to the State Water Board.

15. Contact Information
Liz Haven, Assistant Deputy Director
(916)
Ken Harris, Manager
(916)
Jagroop Khela, Water Recycling Ombudsperson
(916) 
Mailing Address:
1001 I Street, 15th Floor
Division of Water Quality
State Water Resources Control Board
Sacramento, CA 95814