June 5, 2023

March 10-13, 2024
Hilton Denver City Center
Denver, CO

The 39th Annual WateReuse Symposium is a celebration of a unique moment for water reuse. New funding, new collaborations, and new regulatory frameworks are elevating opportunities for reuse projects nationwide. As water reuse practitioners, we have reached this summit together. Together we can remove barriers and empower safer, more resilient, and more sustainable communities and businesses with water reuse.

This year, the Symposium will convene in Colorado: the first state to adopt comprehensive direct potable reuse regulations. Join us for tours of cutting-edge Colorado facilities, exciting downtown Denver networking, and presentations on topics from East to West – from regional mega-projects to building-scale and small community reuse solutions. Come and celebrate mile-high opportunities with WateReuse Association in Denver!

Late last week, Congress passed a multi-year budget agreement following weeks of negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House. The legislation suspends the debt limit through January 1, 2025 before increasing it to accommodate obligations issued during the suspension period. The legislation also caps non-defense discretionary spending at current levels for FY 2024 and allows only a one percent increase in 2025. In practical terms, the deal means that securing funding increases over FY 2023 levels for water recycling programs will be difficult in the next two years. WateReuse is currently working to secure funding for critical water recycling programs during the ongoing FY 2024 appropriations cycle. These programs include the Pilot Program for Alternative Water Source Grants, Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Programs, Title XVI Water Reuse Grants Program, Desalination and Water Purification Grants Program, and others. Now that the debt limit deal has passed, we expect the leaders of the Appropriations Committees to quickly hand down individual spending allocations to each of the twelve appropriations subcommittees so that they can begin to write appropriations bills for FY 2024. WateReuse will remain engaged and will call for additional advocacy action from our members as the process gets underway.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently undertaking several regulatory actions aimed at protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Late last year, EPA proposed a hazardous designation for two PFAS under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). WateReuse submitted comments on the proposed rule and awaits a final rule later this year. Following the publication of its CERCLA rule, EPA published a proposed rule to establish drinking water standards for a set of PFAS. Last week, WateReuse engaged on both proposals, submitting comments on the proposed drinking water standards, and meeting with EPA’s Office of Site Remediation and Enforcement to discuss their planned enforcement discretion of its CERCLA hazardous designation for certain PFAS.

Last Thursday, the Arizona Department of Water Resources released an analysis of groundwater supply in the Phoenix metropolitan area, one of the fastest growing regions in the United States. The report found that there is insufficient groundwater to meet projected demands, including for some already-planned subdivisions in the Phoenix suburbs. The pressures of population growth and climate change on the region's water supplies are driving new solutions like a major potable reuse project planned in the City of Phoenix .

The state says that it will not revoke permits for existing housing developments and is instead counting on them to identify water conservation measures and alternative water sources. Towns around Phoenix are considering purchasing water rights from farmers, which one developer told The Washington Post could add $25,000 to the price of new homes in the area. Water reuse may provide a cost-effective alternative for communities in the region.

Madrid plans to open Spain's first green hydrogen plant to use reclaimed water. The plant will start operations in 2024, using solar and biogas power to transform tertiary-treated recycled water into hydrogen. In addition, the wastewater treatment plant will have the capacity to produce up to 8 million gallons of non-potable reclaimed water per day for irrigation and other municipal uses.