[Chinese Mainland] Liaoning Urban Drainage and Sewage Treatment Regulations Explicitly Encourage Advanced Treatment of Tailwater and Improve Reclaimed Water Recovery and Utilization Rate

Introduction

2026年9月29日, according to a report by Liaoning Daily, the newly revised text of regulations related to urban drainage and sewage treatment in Liaoning Province further clarifies the orientation of urban sewage treatment and resource utilization: coordinating the construction and renovation of sewage treatment plants and reclaimed water utilization facilities, requiring sewage treatment plants to reduce overflow pollution by adding overflow storage and overflow outlet purification facilities, and explicitly stating "encourage and support sewage treatment plants in carrying out advanced treatment of tailwater, promoting recycling, and improving the reclaimed water recovery and utilization rate." The regulations also propose tracking and recording the standardized disposal of sludge throughout the entire process. This legislative expression elevates "advanced tailwater treatment + reclaimed water reuse" from a technical advocacy to a direction encouraged by local institutions, releasing a clear policy signal for sewage resource utilization in the old industrial base of Northeast China.

Background

Liaoning is an old industrial base with a high urbanization rate and a complete range of industrial categories. It generates large volumes of urban domestic sewage and industrial wastewater, while the temporal and spatial distribution of water resources is uneven, and the water shortage situation in western and northern Liaoning is prominent. In the past, urban sewage treatment took "compliance discharge" as its core objective, and plant-network construction emphasized the linear process of "collection—treatment—discharge." The construction of reclaimed water utilization facilities lagged, the reuse rate was low, and large amounts of compliant tailwater were directly discharged into rivers, which not only wasted water resources but also failed to alleviate the regional water shortage contradiction. As the national water governance approach of "water conservation priority, spatial balance, systematic governance, and dual efforts" deepens, and as policies advance to incorporate reclaimed water into the unified allocation of water resources, Liaoning urgently needs to solidify the "treatment—reuse" closed-loop orientation through local legislation. This revision of the regulations is precisely an institutional response made under the national policy framework for sewage resource utilization and in light of Liaoning's actual conditions.

Core

The core orientation of the regulations is reflected at four levels.

First, coordinated facility construction. The regulations require coordinated arrangement of the construction and renovation of sewage treatment plants and reclaimed water utilization facilities, meaning that the two are no longer in a sequential order of "treatment first, reuse supplemented later," but are instead designed collaboratively and advanced simultaneously at the planning and project approval stages. For newly built, renovated, and expanded sewage plants, reclaimed water transmission pipelines, reuse pumping stations, and quality-differentiated water supply interfaces will become standard rather than optional.

Second, overflow pollution control. The regulations clearly state that sewage treatment plants should reduce overflow pollution by adding overflow storage facilities and overflow outlet purification facilities. This requirement targets the long-standing industry problem of combined sewer network overflows during the rainy season, writing "reduce overflow, purify overflow" into the institutional framework and forcing integrated plant-network renovation and storage capacity construction.

Third, institutionalized encouragement of advanced tailwater treatment and reclaimed water reuse. Through the legislative language of "encourage and support," the regulations explicitly support sewage treatment plants in carrying out advanced tailwater treatment, promoting recycling, and improving the reclaimed water recovery and utilization rate. Advanced treatment (such as filters, activated carbon, membrane processes, advanced oxidation, etc.) is the key link in upgrading tailwater from "compliant discharge water" to "usable reclaimed water." The encouraging orientation of the regulations will directly drive demand for upgrading and reuse projects.

Fourth, standardized whole-process sludge disposal. The regulations put forward tracking and recording requirements for sludge, emphasizing standardized management throughout the entire process from generation, transportation, and disposal to resource utilization. This echoes the governance trend of "placing equal emphasis on sludge and water" and also leaves institutional space for sludge resource utilization.

From the perspective of industrial impact, the Liaoning regulations echo policies in Shandong, Xiamen, and other places during the same period: water-scarce regions in the north are collectively upgrading "reclaimed water" from an end-of-pipe treatment option to an institutional increment in water resource supply. For environmental engineering and equipment enterprises, the demand released by the regulations is concentrated in three categories: first, process packages for sewage plant upgrading and advanced tailwater treatment; second, infrastructure such as reclaimed water transmission and distribution networks and reuse pumping stations; and third, intelligent scheduling capabilities integrating plants, networks, rivers (lakes). As a core region for Northeast revitalization, Liaoning has a considerable volume of urban sewage resource utilization renovation, and for enterprises with reclaimed water reuse and integrated treatment as their core capabilities, it is a policy-driven market worthy of continuous tracking.