News Releases from Headquarters›Water (OW)

EPA Announces New Actions to Support Water Reuse, Highlights Water Subcabinet Coordination

WASHINGTON (October 27, 2020) — Today, at the Future of Water Infrastructure and Innovation Summit, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water David Ross announced four new proposed actions under the National Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP). The event, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), featured members of the newly formed Water Subcabinet and highlighted, among other issues, the importance of federal coordination on water reuse.

“Water reuse is a prime example where enhanced federal coordination under the Water Subcabinet is essential to driving progress on actions that will diversify our nation’s water supplies to help meet future demand,” said EPA Assistant Administrator David Ross. “Collaboration under the WRAP continues to bear fruit with four new proposed actions that will support water reuse’s role in our 21st century water economy while protecting public health and the environment.”

Today, as part of the second quarterly WRAP update, four new proposed actions were released for stakeholder feedback. Action leaders from DOE, EPA, and the Water Research Foundation proposed new actions for development under the WRAP. The proposed actions include:

• Engaging disadvantaged and small communities to evaluate needs and opportunities to improve water security, sustainability, and resilience through water reuse.
• Funding research through the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program to support safe and sustainable water resources.
• Developing early-stage research on desalination and water reuse treatment technologies to secure affordable and energy-efficient water supplies for the nation from nontraditional water sources, including brackish groundwater, municipal wastewater, produced water, agricultural drainage, and seawater.
• Sharing information on monitoring practices with the water reuse community, focusing on current and novel monitoring practices and techniques related to finished water quality and treatment process performance in water reuse systems.

The second WRAP quarterly update also features activities from July through September 2020, highlighting progress that action leaders and partners across the water user community have made to advance reuse. In the months since the Action Plan’s release, action leaders and partners have collectively completed 115 milestones and ongoing activities have translated to nearly 600 action updates.

Details on the four newly proposed actions and information about WRAP implementation can be found on the WRAP Online Platform.

Background

The WRAP is a collaborative initiative representing the efforts of 29 unique action leaders and 80 partnering organizations across the federal, state, tribal, and local levels to enhance and strengthen the security, sustainability, and resilience of our nation’s water resources. It features 37 developed actions with over 270 implementation milestones. In addition to this quarterly update, the current implementation status of each action is communicated through the WRAP Online Platform, which promotes transparency and accountability.

The update on the collaborative implementation of the National Water Reuse Action Plan is available at: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/waterreuse/national-water-reuse-action-plan-quarterly-update.

For more information, including opportunities to engage with EPA on this effort and to follow implementation progress, visit: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/waterreuse/water-reuse-action-plan.