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The Conservation Corner - Water Reuse, Recycling and Non-Potable Water Opportunities
In Oregon, Water Management and Conservation Plans (WMCPs) play a crucial role in helping cities manage their water supplies wisely. Required by Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) Chapter 690, Division 086—and overseen by the Oregon Water Resources Department—these plans guide municipal water providers in meeting both current and future water needs as efficiently as possible. Two important components of WMCPs are:
- Implementing water conservation measures, and
- Evaluating alternative water supply sources.
Together, these can help offset the need to increase the use of water, helping protect Oregon’s natural waterways.
Water providers developing a WMCP are encouraged to consider creative approaches such as water reuse, recycling, and the use of non-potable (non-drinking) water. Water suppliers evaluating these activities must document that they have considered whether and how water reuse and recycling and the use of non‑potable waters could reduce the need for withdrawals or diversions of water. Categories that may be a part of this discussion include:
- Enhanced treatment of municipal wastewater to allow reuse for non-potable purposes such as: Dust control, street sweeping, irrigation of crops and pastureland, or irrigation of urban landscapes (e.g., public landscaping, golf courses, or business parks);
- Recycling of process water within a single industrial facility (or group of facilities);
- Use of domestic “graywater” for onsite irrigation, flushing of toilets or other non‑potable uses (where laws permit such use);
- Recycling of cooling water;
- Requiring backwashing of filters with untreated water instead of finished water; and/or
- Discontinuation of the use of potable water at a municipal sewage treatment plant.
Some current examples of water reuse, recycling and non-potable water activities in Oregon are:
The Oregon Garden in Silverton
The city of Silverton’s wastewater treatment plant receives and treats all sanitary wastewater collected from its customers through a collection piping system. Up to one million gallons per day of treated effluent from the wastewater treatment plant is pumped to the Oregon Garden (Silverton’s primary effluent disposal site), to be used for landscape irrigation and wetlands supply at the Oregon Garden. The wastewater receives final treatment on about 16 acres of the Oregon Garden where a series of 25 ponds perform three final filtering functions.
The City-Owned Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Prineville
In 1988, the city of Prineville faced fines of up to $25,000 per day if it did not find a way to dispose of wastewater that was being dumped into the Crooked River. Since Prineville did not have enough money to build a new water treatment facility, the city decided to build a golf course that would dispose of the wastewater. Meadow Lakes Golf Course is a fully functional 18-hole championship golf course and wastewater disposal site owned by the city of Prineville. The wastewater is now disposed of through land application of effluent as irrigation on 123 acres of the municipal golf course and through 10 evaporation ponds that double as water hazards.
Clean Water Services-Owned Fernhill Wetlands in Forest Grove
The 700 acres at Fernhill Wetlands combine a progressive wastewater treatment facility with riparian wetlands and public walking trails and spaces. In the summer, 5 million gallons of water are cleaned each day at Forest Grove, and then Fernhill, before flowing to the Tualatin River. Once it is disinfected, the wetlands naturally cool and provide an additional treatment to the water, add habitat, ecological function, and recreational opportunities. Along with it being a wastewater treatment site, Fernhill Wetlands is an oasis for not only the migratory birds traveling the Pacific Flyway, but also for people seeking to get closer to nature. ¹
While OAR Chapter 690, Division 086 encourages consideration and analysis of different water conservation efforts, it is ultimately up to the municipal water supplier to determine which conservation activities and programs are appropriate for implementation. Water reuse, water recycling, and non-potable water opportunities are just a few of the options in an array of water conservation actions that can help a water supplier meet its current and future demands.
For more information about water conservation measures that are considered as part of WMCP, please contact Kerri H. Cope kerri.h.cope@water.oregon.gov or Tamera Smith tamera.l.smith@water.oregon.gov with the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), or visit OWRD’s water management and conservation planning webpage: www.oregon.gov/owrd/programs/planning/wmcp/pages/default.aspx.
¹An Oasis in the most Unlikely Place, Amy Nelson, Biohabitats.com, August 3, 2015
Last Updated 5/9/25