San Mateo and local water agencies are examining the feasibility of a water facility project to expand recycled water supply in the area to offset increased demand and drought conditions.
San Mateo does not currently produce recycled water, but it has examined producing recycled water for freshwater use over the past few years amid a drought. San Mateo is part of a Potable Reuse Exploratory Plan with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, Redwood City, Cal Water, and Silicon Valley Clean Water to explore water recycling options.
These regional parties are now ready to move forward with preliminary design and environmental documentation for an advanced water purification facility to treat wastewater from San Mateo and other areas and turn it into drinking water, according to a city staff presentation at a April 18 council meeting. The project is called the SF-Peninsula Regional PureWater Project. The facility could produce up to 12 million gallons per day of potable water, a key boon amid worry about future water supply. However, it would cost $700 million to build and $20 million for yearly operational costs. The city estimates the project timeline at over a decade. Questions remain about the role of each agency, who leads the project and how to fund it. San Mateo Public Works Director Azalea Mitch said the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently expressed interest in leading the project forward, putting it in a much better situation to be completed compared to previous years. Mitch said there are opportunities to get grant funding, and upcoming documentation will explore federal funding options. San Mateo will have to pay $100,000 for its share of documentation costs.
“I think we have an opportunity here to keep this moving,” Mitch said.
Councilmember Joe Goethals was enthusiastic about the news.
“It feels like it has finally turned the corner where people actually believe us that this is going to happen,” Goethals said. “The general public is ready. I think the approach Azalea has laid out is absolutely fantastic and makes me so excited.”
California Water Service Company serves San Mateo and would assess and meet recycled water demands, while the city would produce the recycled water and act as wholesalers. Several options exist for treating and recycling the water in the Potable Reuse Exploratory Plan. Indirect potable would have recycled water go through water treatment and an environmental buffer, like a groundwater basin or reservoir, like the Crystal Springs Reservoir. Direct potable use would introduce recycled water into a system without an environmental buffer. Nonpotable is wastewater treated for irrigation, industrial use and toilets, something the Bay Area has employed for decades.
The city and state have made improved water usage a priority, given current environmental conditions. California faces low rain and snow numbers and intensifying drought conditions, with a drought declared for the third year. Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on the state and public to work to build water resilience in communities and look at innovative solutions in the coming years. Newsom has also asked local water agencies to implement more aggressive conservation measures to save water, and the state has invested $5.2 billion over three years to build water resiliency statewide, according to the governor’s office. A 2017 study found recycled water demand in San Mateo and areas served in Foster City at 1.6 million gallons per day. However, a city staff report noted a recycled water project may not be financially viable due to high capital costs. San Mateo will be able to produce recycled water following its Wastewater Treatment Plan Expansion concluding in 2024.
(4) comments
GREAT news !!!
Have been an advocate of this and can make a huge dent in our potable water issues.
It has been done decades ago. Our startup back in the 70's automated sewage treatment plants and Sue City was one which had potable water...but even our engineers/techs installing the controls could not drink it because of the 'yuk factor'
San Mateo's sewage treatment facility dumps millions of gallons of treated sewage into the bay DAILY.
If treated to the level to become potable drinking water, we will have made a huge dent in our water crisis.
The infrastructure is already there to bring it to each home in San Mateo and is the current potable water system.
All that will be needed it to design a new section into the current potable water pipe system.
Of course this treatment section will need funding, but my guess much less than a desalination plant, which poisons the water where the removed salts are dumped into the bay.
Links of treating sewage into potable water and the now industry common term "yuk factor"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-toilet-to-tap-what-cities-need-to-do-to-make-it-happen-11558105505
From Toilet to Tap: What Cities Need to Overcome to Make That Happen
Recycled sewage will be a part of more cities’ water supplies in the future. But how do you get past the yuck factor?
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2011/04/04/from-wastewater-to-drinking-water/
From Wastewater to Drinking Water
https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/blog/drinking-water/is-drinking-recycled-sewage-water-really-that-gross
Is Drinking Recycled Sewage Water Really that Gross?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywhYu2FRJTk
Treatment process turns wastewater into drinking water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkO_hchlpw
Eco India: Treating sewage water to make it drinkable could hold the answer to Delhi’s water woes
https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/blog/drinking-water/is-drinking-recycled-sewage-water-really-that-gross
Is Drinking Recycled Sewage Water Really that Gross?
https://policyinstitute.ucdavis.edu/improving-public-perception-of-water-reuse/
Improving public perception of water reuse
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/science/recycled-drinking-water-getting-past-the-yuck-factor.html
Water Flowing From Toilet to Tap May Be Hard to Swallow
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Water spilled out of a spigot, sparklingly clear, into a plastic cup. Just 45 minutes earlier, it was effluent, piped over from Orange County’s wastewater treatment plant next door. At a specialized plant, it then went through several stages of purification that left it cleaner than anything that flows out of a home faucet or comes in a brand-name bottle.
https://blog.bccresearch.com/toilet-to-tap-drinking-water-legislation-aims-to-overcome-the-yuck-factor
"Toilet to Tap’ Drinking Water Bill Aims to Overcome the ‘Yuck Factor’
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/20/587195891/california-aims-to-get-past-the-yuck-factor-of-recycled-wastewater
California Aims To Get Past The Yuck Factor Of Recycled Wastewater
https://lucidmanager.org/marketing/recycled-water-yuck-factor/
The Psychology of the Recycled Water Yuck Factor
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619330665
Can conformity overcome the yuck factor? Explaining the choice for recycled drinking water
https://theconversation.com/why-we-can-get-over-the-yuck-factor-when-it-comes-to-recycled-water-65108
Why we can get over the ‘yuck factor’ when it comes to recycled water
I share your enthusiasm.
I hope the planning process goes smoothly and the project gets the support it needs to proceed.
San Mateo and other local county residents – hold onto your wallets. I can already envision the proposed tax increases to fund this union giveaway. Why a union giveaway? Simple - we don’t need this $700million boondoggle because we don’t have a water problem. Just tell the state to stop wasting 50% of our water out to sea. Even decreasing the waste to 45% will give us little people 50% more water than we currently get. But where’s the money for unions, pensions, and benefits if we go that route? Exactly. So like the train-to-nowhere, we have another make-work union labor reward.
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