The National Research Council formed a Committee on the Assessment of Water Reuse as an Approach for Meeting Future Water Supply Needs, and this report summarizes the nation's recent history in water use and shows how the amount of wastewater discharged into the environment is large enough to play a key role in the water resource picture and add to other strategies like water conservation. It outlines a research agenda to help progress in making use of the resource and analyzes associated technical, economic, institutional, and social issues, including the benefits of expanded water reuse and reclamation, technology, assessing risks, costs, barriers to implementation, and research needs, and considers various applications in drinking water, nonpotable urban uses, irrigation, industrial process water, groundwater recharge, and ecological enhancement. It discusses the history of reuse in the US and globally, water quality and contaminants of concern in wastewater effluent, design and operational strategies, risks in terms of human health, financial and economic circumstances, regulatory concerns, legal considerations, public perception, and actions needed, including the roles of federal and nonfederal agencies. It focuses on large and small municipal wastewater treatment plants and does not address building-scale reuse or greywater reuse in depth. No index is included. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)