Water Reuse for Industrial Applications Resources

Industrial water reuse is the use of recycled water for industrial applications. Examples include using treated municipal wastewater for manufacturing cars or cooling data centers. Water used in industrial applications may also be generated via onsite processes such as microchip manufacturing, food and beverage production, mineral extraction, and energy generation and then used elsewhere in the facility. Because this water may have limited contact with humans, it can be less costly and less energy intensive to treat and reuse.

Water reuse is the practice of reclaiming water from a variety of sources, treating it, and reusing it for beneficial purposes. The following resources relate to reuse for industrial applications; for information on other uses, please visit the Water Reuse Resource Hub by End-Use Application.

On this page:

• Key Resources
  • Industry (General)
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Energy Dominance
  • Food and Beverage
  • Mining
  • Manufacturing
• State Water Reuse Regulations and Guidelines
• Project Examples

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Key Resources

The following links are a sampling of the key water sector resources that are freely available to support water practitioners interested in developing water reuse projects for cooling, energy generation, food and beverage production, mining, manufacturing, or other industrial purposes. Visit the Water Reuse Information Library for additional water reuse materials.

Industry (General)

• DOE Industrial Water Savings Network – DOE's Better Plants initiative includes a component that looks to identify strategies industry can take to reduce water use or identify alternative sources of water for their operations. In the fall of 2026, the program is holding an interactive webinar series that will focus on the evolving landscape of industrial water reuse.
• 2025 Risk Based Framework for Developing Microbial Treatment Targets for Water Reuse (pdf) – This EPA document provides detailed scientific information that states and Tribes can use to develop risk assessments and microbial treatment targets that support safe potable and non-potable water reuse. Watch a webinar that introduces the document here.
• 2012 Guidelines for Water Reuse (pdf) – This EPA document includes discussion of regional variations of water reuse in the U.S., advances in wastewater treatment technologies relevant to reuse, best practices for involving communities in planning projects, international water reuse practices, and factors that will allow expansion of safe and sustainable water reuse throughout the world. The guidelines also provide more than 100 case studies from around the world that highlight how reuse applications can and do work. Chapter 3.5 is specific to industrial reuse.

Data Center Cooling

• Emerging Technologies Review: Water Reuse Systems for Cooling Tower Applications (pdf) – This review from DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory explains how certain building cooling systems, including those from certain data centers, can shrink their water usage by reusing water in cooling towers—the heat rejection equipment and often a building's biggest water draw—by repurposing alternative water sources and treating them for cooling tower supply. It highlights practical options such as capturing HVAC condensate, harvesting rain and stormwater, or using treated greywater and reclaimed wastewater, along with modular systems that make onsite reuse easier to deploy.
• Cooling the Cloud: Water Utilities in a Data-Driven World (pdf) – An overview of how data center sector growth is reshaping local water planning and highlights practical reuse options, such as using treated municipal wastewater as a source water for cooling towers. This American Water Works Association report presents case studies of that approach, including details about water quality ranges adopted for certain cooling applications. The report also addresses concrete next steps for entities interested in evaluating the feasibility of this reuse application with their own systems.
• CDC's Controlling Legionella in Cooling Towers – Detailed explanation of cooling tower technologies along with common control measures for mitigating legionella growth and exposure. The webpage and accompanying CDC toolkit include a list of external resources helpful to practitioners operating cooling towers.
• EPA/ACWA Water Reuse for Data Centers webinar presentation – In this December 2025 webinar, EPA provided an overview of the regulatory landscape for data center cooling, industry representatives from Amazon Web Services and Loudoun Water shared their approaches for industrial water reuse, and Dr. Mark LeChevallier presented on Legionella exposure risks. State regulators from Oregon, Ohio, and Washington discussed permitting approaches for data centers.

Energy

• Industrial Wastewater Treatment Technology Database (IWTT) – This EPA database compiles performance results for industrial wastewater treatment from sources such as conference proceedings, government reports, industry publications, and peer‑reviewed journals. The resource allows users to explore treatment options, match technologies to target pollutants, and understand why facilities adopt new systems. It emphasizes high‑quality studies published since 2000 and covers both pilot‑ and full‑scale industrial wastewater applications that meet defined data quality criteria.
• Alternative Water Siting Tool – This planning tool from the Electric Power Research Institute integrates geospatial and informational data on thermal power plants and wastewater treatment plants and enables users to identify alternative water sources that are geographically positioned for reuse by power generation assets. Results can be used to prioritize candidate sites, evaluate the distance and connectivity between source and potential end-user, and compare different siting scenarios.
• Summary of Input on Oil and Gas Extraction Wastewater Management Practices Under the Clean Water Act (pdf) – This EPA-led study explored whether increased opportunities for discharge of treated produced water is supported by stakeholders, and if so, what concerns exist around discharge. It is meant to inform EPA's consideration of potential regulatory and nonregulatory approaches for management of oil and gas produced wastewater under the CWA, including the potential for reuse opportunities, while ensuring the protection of public health and the environment.
• Singapore National Water Agency's Best Practice Guide in Water Efficiency for the Refineries, Petrochemicals, and Chemicals Sector (pdf) – This guide for manufacturers of petrochemical and chemical products and petroleum refineries provides professional engineers, developers, plant owners, and facility operators involved in water management with the basic knowledge of designing, maintaining and operating a water-efficient plant, including through water reuse and onsite recycling.

Food and Beverage

• Context-Based Decision Guide for Water Reuse and Recycling – The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable developed this guide to accelerate the transition to broader industry adoption of water reuse. It is a context-based decision guide that condones use of water reduction, water reuse, and water recycling (onsite and offsite) among industries.
• Water and Wastewater Treatment/Volume Reduction Manual – This manual was created by the Brewers Association for effective water and wastewater management within the craft brewer sector that is relevant to all brewery locations and sizes. The manual provides resources such as checklists and visual tools to help educate brewers about water usage and identify wastewater reduction opportunities.
• Advancing Water Reuse Within the Beverage Industry – This whitepaper was developed by GHD to assess barriers and opportunities for water reuse in the beverage industry related to stakeholder engagement, regulatory environment, and treatment and technology.
• Singapore National Water Agency's Best Practice Guide in Water Efficiency for the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector (pdf) – This guide for food and beverage manufacturers provides professional engineers, developers, plant owners, and facility operators involved in water management with the basic knowledge of designing, maintaining and operating a water-efficient plant, including a chapter on water recycling.

Mining

• Water Stewardship Framework – This framework established by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) outlines a standardized approach to water stewardship for the mining and metals industry, which emphasizes increasing efficiencies in the use of water, including through water reuse.

Manufacturing

• Survey of Available Information on U.S. Manufacturing Wastewater and Energy Requirements for Reuse (pdf) – This report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory seeks to inform an improved understanding of the energy tradeoff associated with manufacturing water reuse in the United States based on existing literature and publicly available information on typical contaminants in industrial effluent and available treatment technologies.
• Singapore National Water Agency's Best Practice Guide in Water Efficiency for the Biomedical Manufacturing Sector (pdf) – This guide for biomedical manufacturers provides professional engineers, developers, plant owners, and facility operators involved in water management with the basic knowledge of designing, maintaining and operating a water-efficient plant, including through water recycling.

State Water Reuse Regulations and Guidelines

The following states developed guidelines and regulations for industrial water reuse. States vary in the industrial end uses that are permissible under their guidelines and regulations. Those states that specifically authorize the reuse of treated municipal wastewater (or other sources, where noted) for industrial uses are listed below. Click the links from the REUSExplorer to review summary documents, which include the state regulations authorizing the use of recycled water for industrial applications, water quality and treatment specifications, definitions, and more!

Project Examples

Microsoft reuses water which helps improve local groundwater supply in Washington State
Microsoft and the City of Quincy partnered to construct the Quincy Water Reuse Utility, which treats cooling water from a Microsoft data center and recirculates it to the data center for the same purpose, reducing reliance on local potable groundwater. The water supplied from the Quincy Water Reuse Facility is of a more suitable quality for the data center's cooling equipment than the conventionally treated, mineral-rich groundwater. Therefore, water recycling helps to lower the use of potable groundwater supplies in the region while supplying cooling water of a higher quality to the Microsoft data center.

Developed by The World Bank in October 2023

Fairfax, Virginia reuses water for landscaping and industrial cooling water
Fairfax County reuses its treated municipal wastewater for industrial applications, including cooling. Key reasons for pursuing reuse included: to treat wastewater for a growing population without costly upgrades to its municipal wastewater treatment plant, to reduce nutrient discharges to the Chesapeake Bay, to meet TMDL requirements, and to lower the demand on potable water supplies by using reclaimed water for industrial uses.

Developed by GHD in October 2023