Water quality: recycled water.

Senator McNerney's recycled water legislation expands permissible uses while establishing new safeguards for water quality and public health. The bill redefines recycled water categories based on treatment levels and modifies reporting requirements for unauthorized discharges, introducing a 1,000-gallon threshold for water treated below tertiary standards while maintaining the existing 50,000-gallon threshold for higher-grade recycled water.

The measure permits incidental spray and runoff from disinfected tertiary treated recycled water in outdoor eating areas of parks and open spaces when irrigation meets state standards. For residential properties, the bill clarifies that outdoor landscape irrigation of common areas falls outside dual-plumbing system requirements when recycled water does not enter individual residences. Food handling and processing facilities may now use recycled water for toilet flushing and outdoor irrigation, provided the water remains isolated from food processing areas.

These provisions align with California's Water Supply Strategy goals to increase water reuse to 800,000 acre-feet annually by 2030 and 1.8 million acre-feet by 2040. The bill maintains existing water rights protections while updating regulations that have remained largely unchanged since 2000. Public agencies retain authority to mandate recycled water use when available, subject to state board determination of suitability and compliance with water quality standards.