New rules will expand how water can be reused in Colorado

Water is already a scarce commodity in the West, but if Colorado keeps growing we are going to need even more. One source could be treating reused drinking water. It's a scenario water providers and the state are already planning for. 

"We're kind of forecasting to the future listening to utilities," said Tyson Ingels, Lead Drinking Water Engineer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. "As the decades have unfolded stakeholders have asked that the state health department consider adopting rules around the safe reuse of treated wastewater as a new water source." 

It's not something that will likely happen soon. Direct potable reuse water will need to be treated with state-of-the-art technologies to make it safe to drink and that process is expensive, but providers and the state want to be prepared. 

"It's going to become a very big tool in the toolbox to keep sustainable growth in Colorado and really the whole arid West," said Ingels. 

That's why just this month CDPHE implemented new rules to regulate direct potable reuse water. So that way if water providers are going to practice direct potable reuse, they are doing it safely. 

Their regulations also state that if a water provider decides to use direct potable reuse water they need to notify their customers about it and seek public input. That way the decision is a community one.  

Ingels says while the idea of reusing water seems odd, it is perfectly safe with the regulations CDPHE has put into place. 

"We would assert that it is perfectly safe to drink," he said. 

Colorado is the first state to implement a direct potable regulation but other states may soon follow suit. Arizona, Texas, Florida, and California have already published guidelines for direct potable reuse.