California officials voted on Tuesday to approve the first standards to allow water agencies to recycle sewage into drinking water.

A unanimous decision by the State Water Resources Control Board greenlit the regulations that have been years in the making. The regulations will authorize what's known as “direct potable reuse,” enabling water agencies to take wastewater and treat it extensively, and then put it back in the drinking water system. Colorado’s water agency unanimously approved a preliminary order to regulate the same process in October 2022.

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Different counties across California use their recycled wastewater for various purposes, including irrigating fields or water parks and mixing it into aquifers. A large majority of treated wastewater in California is currently dumped into the ocean, rivers, or bays.

“This is an exciting development in the state’s ongoing efforts to find innovative solutions to the challenges of extreme weather driven by climate change,” E. Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the State Water Board, said in a statement. “On top of helping us build drought resilient water supplies, direct potable reuse offers energy savings and environmental benefits. And most importantly, these regulations ensure that the water produced is not only safe, but purer than many drinking water sources we now rely on."

California has been through multiple extreme droughts in recent decades, leaving the state's reservoirs dangerously low for years. Two of the state's largest reservoirs — Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville — filled up last year due to record-setting rains and heavy snow.

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“Full reservoirs do not ensure plentiful water for years into the future. The past four years are a testament to how drastically reservoirs can change over the course of one or two years,” NASA Earth Observatory said in June, showing the reservoirs' capacities in satellite imagery.

The regulations would likely go into effect next April, water board officials have said, and they need to pass through multiple state agencies, such as the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Administrative Law, for final approval.