California’s Central Coast is turning recycled water into a lifeline for rivers, golf courses, farms, and coastal communities—showing how reuse can work far beyond the big cities.

In this episode, Nick Becker of Pebble Beach Community Services District, Alison Imamura of Monterey One Water, and Melanie Mow Schumacher of Soquel Creek Water District share how their communities are rethinking every drop.

At Pebble Beach, Becker explains how drought in the 1980s pushed local leaders to build one of the first systems that uses recycled water to irrigate seven world-class golf courses and a high school—later upgraded with microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and a 115-million-gallon reservoir so the system can bank winter water for dry summers.

Imamura describes how Pure Water Monterey takes a holistic approach, blending municipal wastewater, urban stormwater, industrial flows, and agricultural drainage into advanced treatment that both supplies 12,000 acres of farmland and returns purified water to the groundwater basin—cutting diversions from the Carmel River and protecting endangered species.

Schumacher shows how the small-but-mighty Soquel Creek Water District is fighting seawater intrusion and an overdrafted aquifer with Pure Water Soquel, an advanced purification project that turns wastewater into a high-quality groundwater recharge supply backed by strong public outreach, regional partnerships, and creative funding through state and federal programs.

This episode is part of The Golden State of Reuse, a series exploring the past, present, and future of water recycling across California.

The series is a collaboration with WateReuse California and sponsored by CDM Smith.

The series is also supported by the Sacramento Area Sewer District, Black & Veatch, and Monterey One Water.

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.