SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NEWSnet/AP) — When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can got to a lot of places: An ice skating rink near Disneyland, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the Central Valley.

And, coming soon, kitchen faucets.

California regulators on Tuesday approved new rules to allow water agencies to recycle wastewater and put it back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses.

It’s a big step for a state that has struggled for decades to secure reliable sources of drinking water for its more than 39 million residents. Recent drought has added to the challenge.

“Water is so precious in California. It is important that we use it more than once,” said Jennifer West, managing director of WateReuse California, a group advocating for recycled water.

California has used recycled wastewater for decades. The Ontario Reign minor league hockey team has used it to make ice for its rink in Southern California. Soda Springs Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe used it to make snow. Farmers in Central Valley use it to water crops.

But it hasn’t been used directly for drinking water. Orange County operates a large water purification system that recycles wastewater and uses it to refill underground aquifers. It mingles with groundwater for months before being pumped up and used again for drinking water.

California’s new rules would let water agencies take wastewater, treat it, the return it into the water system.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves 19 million people, aims to produce up to 150 million gallons per day of both direct and indirect recycled water. A project in San Diego is aiming to account for nearly half of the city’s water by 2035.

Water agencies will need public support to complete these projects. That will involve convincing customers that recycled water safe to drink, and not “icky.”

California’s new rules require the wastewater be treated for all pathogens and viruses, even if the pathogens and viruses aren’t in the wastewater.

Treatment is so stringent it removes all of the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good — meaning they have to be added at the end of the process.

“It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” said Polhemus, deputy director of the division of drinking water for California Water Resources Control Board.

It’s expensive and time-consuming to build these treatment facilities, so Polhemus said it will only be an option for bigger, well-funded cities, at least initially.

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