Silicon Valley's Latest Innovation: Recycled Water

"San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews and other Silicon Valley leaders on Monday took big gulps of recycled water -- filtered, cleaned and disinfected sewage -- to show that it is safe and should be a growing part of Silicon Valley's drinking water future," reports Paul Rogers.

The occasion of the photo op was the unveiling of a proposal "for an $800 million expansion of recycled water in Santa Clara County over the next 10 years." Rogers adds: "Under the new proposal, San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley Water District are calling for expanding that use from 20,000 acre-feet a year now to about 55,000 acre-feet a year -- or 20 percent of the county's total water demand -- by 2025."

Formerly known as toilet to tap, water utilities in some parts of the state, like Orange County, have already implemented recycled drinking water capacity in California. Santa Clara County has been using recycled water since 1997 "for irrigating golf courses, landscaping and other nondrinking uses, such as in industrial cooling."

On another note of interest to planners knowledgeable in California state law, the press conference included an appeal by the mayors for the state to suspend environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act for the purposes of speeding approval and construction of the water recycling facility.

The article includes more information about the political implications of the project and the possible CEQA exemption as well as a cost comparison between water from the San Francisco Bay Delta, desalination, and recycled water.