CEC advisory panel reconvened to update recommendations for recycled water monitoring

SCCWRP has reconvened an expert advisory panel at the behest of the State Water Board to develop an updated set of recommendations for monitoring CECs in recycled water.

During a three-day meeting at SCCWRP in July, the CEC Recycled Water Advisory Panel deliberated how to update a multi-component assessment framework that the panel originally unveiled in 2010 to guide the State in crafting recycled water CEC monitoring policies. The panel’s 2010 recommendations were adopted by the State Water Board in 2013.

Scientific knowledge about CECs and its ecosystem effects has grown considerably since the panel was originally formed, prompting the State Water Board to ask SCCWRP to reconvene the panel. The State Water Board is working to develop a recycled water policy scheduled for release in 2018.

Among the panel’s new charge questions is evaluating the potential health implications of reusing treated wastewater effluent, which could contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes that survive the treatment process in viable form. A seventh panelist with expertise in microbiology has been added to provide additional perspective around this issue.

The panel also has been asked by the State Water Board to reevaluate a list of priority chemicals for monitoring of groundwater recharge projects; the panel developed the original list seven years ago.

The panel is scheduled to deliver its updated recommendations to the State Water Board in early 2018.