WCW24

Recent trends of climate change impacts have been gesturing that water reuse may become a 'compulsory' rather than an 'arbitrary' water source in the next few decades in Western Canada. Recurring droughts, receding glaciers, drying streams, and shrinking groundwater sources are sending alarming signals about water availability and security, indicating that reclaimed water may have to become inevitably an integral source of non-potable and potable water supply in this part of Canada. Many municipalities, regions, and districts around the world have been through similar situations (e.g., drought conditions threatening local and regional water sources); to increase their water supply resiliency, some have been practicing recycled water use for years to different extents and have developed regulations and guidelines pertinent to their territories' needs and conditions. Florida started water reuse in 1960s. California has had the reuse regulations for over 100 years (first adopted in 1918) for non-potable reuse and has just adopted the direct potable reuse regulations in the end of 2023. Texas was the first state in the United States that adopted the regulations allowing direct potable reuse. In 1992, a National Water Quality Management Strategy (NWQMS) involved Australian and New Zealand governments jointly developing national water quality policies, processes, and guideline documents; these national guidelines served as a baseline for the states to develop their own guidelines for the use of different qualities of recycled water for specific purposes, incorporated into regulations as necessary. Currently in Canada, no federal or provincial policies or regulations are available governing water reclamation and reuse, including Saskatchewan (SK), Alberta (AB), and Ontario (ON). AB has a Guidelines for Residential Rainwater Harvesting Systems since 2010 and has recently published Guidelines for Residential Rainwater Harvesting Systems in 2021. British Columbia (BC) Reclaimed Water Guidelines serves as a companion document for the BC Municipal Wastewater Regulations; as it is practically functioning as part of the regulations, it makes BC the only province with a document pertaining to reuse regulations. The limited number of available guidelines and almost no regulation gets one thinking whether Western Canada would be ready from regulations and guidelines standpoint for the time comes when reclaimed water use will have to be integrated into our water/wastewater infrastructure and management system. While all the existing international regulations exist to be drawn from for the existing and future projects in Western Canada, regional guidelines and regulations should be developed or expanded, to speak into and account for regional conditions, including existing and alternative water sources matching the region's profile, public perception for reuse in the region, evolving climate conditions in the region, etc. This abstract (and the expanded discussion in the associated presentation/talk) tends to act as a torch for shedding light on the importance of initiating discussions about water reuse topic in Canada and developing Canadian recycled water use legislations and regulations to proactively prepare for our national and provincial future water needs.