ARIZONA STATE SENATE

FAUSTO BURRUEL

ASSISTANT RESEARCH ANALYST

RACHEL ANDREWS

LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH ANALYST

NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMMITTEE

Telephone: (602) 926-3171

RESEARCH STAFF

TO:                  MEMBERS OF THE SENATE

NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY & WATER COMMITTEE

DATE:            March 21, 2023

SUBJECT:      Strike everything amendment to H.B. 2143, relating to gray water reuse

Purpose

            Allows residential gray water to be used indoors for toilet flushing with a gray water treatment system that meets outlined requirements. Allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to establish, by rule, requirements for residential gray water treatment systems that are used indoors for toilet flushing to address public health or safety concerns.

Background

             ADEQ must: 1) formulate policies, plans and programs consistent with law to protect the environment; 2) promote and coordinate the protection and enhancement of the quality of water resources consistent with Arizona's environmental policy; 3) provide for the prevention and abatement of all water pollution; 4) adopt by rule water quality standards; and 5) adopt by rule a permit program for conveyances of reclaimed water and a permit program for the direct use of reclaimed water (A.R.S. §§ 49-104 and 49-203).

            A city, town or county may not limit the use of gray water by rule or ordinance if the gray water use is allowed by a permit that is issued by ADEQ for the direct reuse of reclaimed water, unless, in an initial active management area that has a groundwater management goal of safe yield and that does not contain a part of the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, effluent has been included in an assured water supply determination and the use of gray water would reduce the volume of effluent available to satisfy assured water supply requirements applicable to that determination (A.R.S. § 49-204).

Gray water is wastewater that has been collected separately from a sewage flow and that originates from a clothes washer or a bathroom tub, shower or sink, not including wastewater from a kitchen sink, dishwasher or toilet (A.R.S. § 49-201).

            There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.

Provisions

1. Allows, for residential gray water treatment systems that are used indoors for toilet flushing, ADEQ to establish, by rule, minimum requirements that are necessary specifically to address public health or safety concerns.

2. Allows, until ADEQ establishes rules for residential gray water treatment systems that are used indoors for toilet flushing, residential gray water to be used indoors for toilet flushing with a gray water treatment system that complies with all the following:

a) uses less than 400 gallons of gray water per day;

b) is certified to meet Standard 350 for residential gray water recycling that is issued by a National Sanitary Foundation and an American National Standards Institute;

c) reasonably precludes human contact with gray water;

d) provides a dedicated piping system that supplies only treated gray water to the toilet flushing facilities; and

e) provides gray water for toilet flushing only if the treatment system is properly functioning.

3. Requires a residential gray water treatment system that includes the use of gray water for indoor toilet flushing and that is installed after the effective date of the rules adopted by ADEQ for residential gray water treatment systems used indoors for toilet flushing to meet the minimum requirements established by ADEQ rule.

4. Expands the prohibition on a city, town or county limiting the use of gray water to all gray water use, rather than gray water use that is allowed by an ADEQ-issued permit, unless certain conditions apply.

5. Makes a technical change.

6. Becomes effective on the general effective date.