Recycled Water: The Next Step

I am one of the members who sits on the South Bay Recycled Water Committee, representing San Jose. This committee has investigated and is now recommending a partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Water District to move forward with recycled water and jointly build an advanced water treatment plant.

(I blogged on the topic of recycled water and water scarcity in the past.)

Now, after six long public meetings and a visit to the Orange County advanced water treatment facility, we have reached a tentative agreement that will span 40 years. We will be build an advanced water treatment plant on five acres right next to the existing water pollution control plant in San Jose.

The estimated cost will be $42-$47 million and the costs will be shared:  $20-25 million will come from the water district, $11 million from San Jose, $8.25 million from a federal grant and $3 million from the state (Prop 50). The City of San Jose’s portion will not be coming from the General Fund but rather from money set aside from fees for just this purpose. Unfortunately, this is also the money that some would like to borrow so we can build more affordable housing although we have already built 18,000 affordable units in San Jose.

This plant will produce 10 million gallons per day of membrane-filtrated water, eight million gallons per day of reverse osmosis-treated water and 10 millions gallons per day of ultra violet light-treated water. What does all this mean? Well first, we will be able to demonstrate to regulators and the public that we can take wastewater and turn it into drinking water where we are able to remove particles in the parts per trillion level. This facility will allow for public demonstration of how wastewater is transformed into potable water. People will be able to drink the water after it goes through the many steps of advanced treatment, as they do in Orange County. We will also be able to enhance the recycled water quality for existing industrial customers who would like less salinity in the water which is good as it creates more demand for non-potable uses.

This plant is the first step for the facility. There is land adjacent to the facility to expand and produce even more clean water. However, the thought is to build the larger facility over time, as we need acceptance of advanced water treatment from residents. I recall when touring the Orange County facility that we where told that their water has traces of jet fuel left over from the defense industry and they were able to remove it to less then three parts per trillion. That’s amazing when you think about how the technology can get down to cleaning the water at that level.
 
It is important to remember that almost all the water you and I drink is recycled as only 3 percent of the water on earth is pure.  Interesting thing I learned about San Diego is that 95 percent of their water is imported.  by contrast in San Jose 50 percent of our water is imported. Imported water is always a risk since it may not be there in the future; however, if we have advanced water treatment, then we would have less risk about imported water being diminished.

Oftentimes people ask, «Why not just desalinate the water from the ocean and make that drinking water.» The cost to desalinate ocean water is very expensive. In addition it takes a lot of energy to clean water. The following is how many KWH per hour for one acre foot of water (a year supply of water for two small families):
1,500 KWH for Advanced Water Treatment
3,500 KWH for importing the water from the Delta
4,000 KWH for desalinization

Our water supply is at risk since there is a finite supply. Are you willing to pay a little more for reliable and clean water?

This will be voted on by the water district board in January and city council in February.

15 Comments

  1. Mr. Oliverio gives San Jose residents a choice.  Land for a recycled water plant, or land for a stadium, which has little support.

    In an age of dwindling water resources, the San Jose City Council can oppose new facilities for water, while they up their money for bottled water at City Hall, and support using such available land and redevelopment funds for a recycled water facility.

    Thirsty, Pierluigi.

    • Do you even try to make sense?

      “We will be build an advanced water treatment plant on five acres right next to the existing water pollution control plant in San Jose.”

      The current water plant is in ALVISO.  The PRIVATELY-FUNDED stadium would be in DOWNTOWN.

      You can make up statements like that the stadium has little support, but you can’t argue with facts.

  2. Yes! I am willing to pay a little more for this worthy cause AND I look to you Pierluigi and the rest of the City Council to demand rigorous project management practices be put into place when the recycled water facility is built. (Which BTW, includes realistic forecasts costs and ZERO money wasted.)

    Our dwindling water supply is nothing to be complacent about. I find it frightening that people think nothing of hosing down their driveway with our fresh water supply (use a broom!), taking long and luxurious showers (shower with a friend!) and not adjusting sprinklers to “rain” setting (or install Mediterranean landscaping!) while meanwhile some countries are killing each other over water.

    Also Pierluigi, it would be great if the City and it’s partners (like Groundwerx) would look at its own water saving practices and policies. Example: How many gallons of water is needed to remove dried gum from a sidewalk? How about instead using some type of scraper. And do we really need all that lawn in parks? How about spaces and places friendly to birds, bees and butterflies? Another example: Eliminate the City’s policy that says you cannot use gray water to water plants and encourage the use of chlorine free & biodegradable laundry detergent.

    My .02

    Tina

  3. I am not willing to pay more. I just paid my property taxes and it wiped me out. The city and county need to find the money for this project with the money they already have and squander.

  4. I’m trying to understand the long term cost…

    Is the cost given ($42-$47 million) just the cost for construction ?

    What is the cost to operate/maintain the plant per year ?  Who pays for the operation ?

    • $3 million a year to operate the new plant. Under the agreement the Water District is responsible for maintaining the new plant. The costs to maintain the new plant and existing non potable recycled water plant will be split 50-50. (Currently the city spends $5M a year to maintain the existing plant. This is covered by the Sewer Service and Use Fee.

  5. What is the overall cost per gallon of this water after figuring in all the construction and operation costs ?

    How does this compare to the cost of other sources of water (or water conservation) per gallon ?

    • In the early years, the cost of AWTP will likely exceeding todays cost of imported water because infrastructure has to be build for what is at first a small amount of water (as is the case in any new system).  In later years, the AWTP water will likely be less expensive as more reclaimed water is produced and as the cost of imported water increases.  Projections are that the price of imported water (if you can get it) will be increasing significantly over the next 10 to 15 years and any number of unanticipated events could cause the price to spike.

  6. This is the most basic of needs and I approve completely of the investment.  I also predict that our need for clean water will increase dramatically over time as a result of population growth, diminished capacity to deliver urban water from the State Water Project and potential disruptions to existing supplies from natural and man made disasters.

    My only suggestion is that you overbuild rather than over-promise.  The take it slow approach with a pilot plant is nice as it makes the costs-benefit look great for skeptics, but I’d look for a real industrial scale facility that could be scaled up quickly as needed.  I would also suggest looking at seismic issues in the location as this may turn into the primary water source if a major earthquake or man-made disaster takes out our sprawling system of moving imported water around the state.

    Lastly, it would be nice if renewable energy could be incorporated into the project.  Scale economies suggest that the more we build (solar and otherwise) the lower the cost will become, and it would be a shame to simply add one more heavy user onto the existing grid when we could design energy production into the project (the show me don’t tell me approach to attaining San Jose’s Greenvision Goals.)

    Oh, and one note of caution.  Orange County’s plant was built after they tore down their desalination plant, which proved far too costly to operate on the scales they needed.  If there’s room to allow for new technology as it emerges, I would encourage it, and focus on outcomes (clean water for urban consumption) and not just process.  You might even want to include small scale desalination potential as an extra emergency back-up (redundancy is good when you’re talking about the most basic of human needs.)

    I’d also look at storm water harvesting and expanding the reservoir system to grow the local supply and reduce dependence on imported water.

  7. Pier,

    Do you have a beautiful green lawn in front of your house? How about your Willow Glen neighbors?  I dug up my front lawn and replaced it with drought-tolerant native plants.

    Do you think it is fair for me to pay more for a recycled water plant while my city council members and fellow San Jose residents choose to waste water on lawns, pools, and washing their suvs?

    It makes no sense to spend 47 mil on a recycled water plant if most of the water will drain down the gutter.

    Pier, please support the California Native Garden Foundation. The second land-use appeal hearing date before the San Jose Planning Commission is on January 13, 2010 at 6:30 pm San Jose City Hall. SJ Planning is in favor of evicting this very important and vital non-profit resource from their current site on Race St.

    • “SJ Planning is in favor of evicting this very important and vital non-profit resource”…
      From looking at the staff report on the City’s web site:
      1. The property owner applied to redevelop their site with a new commercial building.
      2. After going through the required process over a number of months, holding meetings and hearings, etc., the Planning Department approved the permit because the project is consistent with the site’s zoning and all other relevant requirements, and there was no valid reason to deny the permit.
      3. A tenant is appealing the permit approval because she wants to stay put and she seems to think this is somehow going to help her cause.

      What a waste of time and an abuse of the process. But everything is all about YOU, YOUR friends, and YOUR agenda, isn’t it?

  8. Pierluigi,
    What’s the point of having an ultra expensive, state of the art water treatment plant that makes water that’s 99.99999% pure, then putting that water in San Jose’s old, rusty, neglected infrastructure, corroding pipes, where it picks up contaminants on the way to our faucets? Hmmm?

    Tina,
    I’m not giving up my long, hot, well deserved showers in order that politicians can get themselves reelected by pandering to the gigantic illegal alien population with whom we are told we must share our resources.

    Steve,
    That tax bill of yours mostly went to pay ex city employees who are now living it up while you and I continue to work for their retirement- AND our own. And it’s only going to get worse as cops and firemen now have every incentive to retire young.

    • Our Mother Earth has only so many resources. As far as I’m concerned, these ARE shared resources since the Universe has not given us a list of who gets what and when and how much. Everyone deserves access to Her resources. Politicians have nothing to do with it. And, no one is entitled to or guaranteed anything…including long hot showers.

      Tina

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