Overview of California Department of Public Health Draft Groundwater Recharge Regulations

摘要

Planned indirect potable reuse (IPR) via the augmentation of groundwater supplies has beenrnpracticed in California since 1962. The first regulations to address IPR by groundwater rechargernwere adopted in 1978 for surface spreading projects. They included general requirements forrngroundwater recharge of domestic water supply aquifers by surface spreading. The CaliforniarnDepartment of Public Health (CDPH) embarked on drafting comprehensive groundwater rechargernregulations for both surface spreading and injection projects several years ago and, although therndraft regulations have gone through several iterations in the last decade, they have yet to be finalizedrnand adopted. The most recent draft groundwater recharge regulations were released by CDPH onrnAugust 5, 2008. CDPH recently prepared a revised internal working draft of the rechargernregulations on June 14, 2011 that reflects CDPH’s current thinking on the regulation ofrngroundwater recharge with recycled water. This new draft regulation, which is summarized inrnthis paper, includes some significant revisions to the previous version of the draft regulation.