The California Department of Health Services (DHS) adopted revised water reuse criteria in December 2000. The new Water Recycling Criteria include requirements for many more uses of reclaimed water than the previous set of reuse criteria, offer increased flexibility, and include use area requirements that were previously recommended or specified by DHS in guidelines or policy documents. Significant changes include elimination of primary effluent for any use, allowance of the use of membranes in lieu of media filtration, and stringent disinfection requirements for high level uses where an essentially pathogen-free effluent is required. The criteria include the same general requirements for groundwater recharge by spreading as were in the previous criteria. Regulations addressing indirect potable reuse are currently under development and will be added to the Water Recycling Criteria in the future. The overall impact to operating agencies is positive in that the regulations reflect current technology and progress the industry has made in documenting appropriate treatment levels and allowable applications. Research directed at risk assessment, microbial indicators, water quality changes in storage/distribution systems, disinfection effectiveness, and other information gaps is still needed to aid DHS in the development of scientifically based criteria. Includes 9 references, table, figure.