Draft rules from the Department of Environmental Quality would allow Oklahoma cities to bolster their drinking water sources with treated wastewater.
Water Quality Division Manager Shellie Chard said cities in Australia have been doing that for years, but American cities so far are only reusing wastewater in industrial and agricultural settings.
"It’s just been in the last few years because of our last drought of record that we really started thinking about what could we do to ensure water supplies moving forward," Chard said.
The rules, finalized last week by DEQ's Water Quality Management Advisory Council, set the bar for municipal wastewater treatment, including removal of pathogens and maximum allowable levels of contaminants, before it may be released.
"Cities or municipalities can meet these higher standards and discharge into a lake in order to augment the quantity of water in that lake so that they will have additional drinking water sources," Chard said.
There would be another level of treatment before treated wastewater comes through a home faucet.
"That water is taken from that reservoir, and then it will go through a drinking water plant before it’s provided to the public," Chard said.
The rules will go before the DEQ board next month. If approved, the next stop is the legislature and the governor. They could be in effect by September.
The rules are part of a goal set through 2012 legislation for Oklahoma to consume no more fresh water in 2060 than it did in 2010.
