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Abstract
As water scarcity is increasing worldwide, the recycling of wastewater is essential to maintain water resources for human use and ecosystem health. Despite the success of specific water recycling projects across the globe, the practice is still not widespread and in only a few cases, is water recycled for drinking, or potable use. When decision makers are considering whether to adopt water recycling practices, they must consider many interconnected factors including public support, state and local policies, costs, infrastructure and technology requirements, and environmental impacts. In this dissertation, I focus on expanding knowledge regarding barriers to water recycling and methods to overcome them. An analysis of state water recycling policies resulted in recommendations to decrease consumer perception of risk and mistrust in utilities through the adoption of particular legislative provisions. A consumer choice survey investigated the willingness to pay of consumers for recycled water based on terminology. ‘Purified water’ was found to be the most preferred term, generating the highest willingness to pay scores, and should be used in policy documents as well as outreach programs to cultivate public acceptance. Finally, an assessment of environmental impacts of the forms of recycling (nonpotable, indirect potable, and direct potable) utilizing case studies found that all resulted in decreased nutrient discharges into the environment, both direct potable and nonpotable recycling showed no significant increase in net water use, and there were mixed results for energy consumption. These results, which address previously untested hypotheses, increase the knowledge available to decision makers in overcoming barriers to water recycling.