ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on several legal aspects of wastewater reclamation and reuse. It discusses the issues of water rights in the ownership and resale of reclaimed wastewater. The chapter describes potential liability and contractual provisions through which exposure to liability may be minimized. It addresses the specific legal problems by the courts through litigation, or in the legislature through statutes, their solutions can be stated in probable terms. Water rights disputes in the sale of treated wastewater may arise from two sources. The suppliers of raw wastewater may assert an interest in the resale value of the reclaimed wastewater after treatment. California water law is a complex hybrid of different systems. Surface waters are allocated according to rules developed in an uneasy coexistence of riparian and appropriative rights. The treatment facility desiring to sell its reclaimed wastewater may be liable to pay compensation to established suppliers of fresh water under the “parallel service statutes”.
