The San Diego City Council last month voted to move forward with Pure Water San Diego, a 20-year plan that could result in a significant portion of the region’s water supply coming from a wastewater-recycling program. The move comes as a way to help ease the effects of this drought and future ones on the area.
Already approved by the San Diego Metro Wastewater Joint Powers Authority, the plan hinges on a three-pronged approach, with much of the work to be taken on by the City of San Diego. First, the city will apply for a new pollutant-discharge permit for the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, which pumps up to 240 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the ocean daily. Although required by the federal Clean Water Act to use the “best available technology” to further filter water before its discharge, the Point Loma facility, opened in 1963, has been operating on waivers since 1995. The second, and current, extension of that alternate permit is set to expire in 2015.
The city will then implement a process of pumping treated wastewater from Point Loma to an existing reclamation plant currently used to produce non-drinkable water for irrigation use and then to a further advanced purification facility before it’s blended back into the city’s potable water supply. A pilot project to test the feasibility of such a process was approved in 2010 and has been in operation for several years.
According to the city, the project has verified that the water purification process consistently produces water that meets all state and federal drinking water standards, but such recycling, called “toilet to tap” by critics, has suffered from what has been called “the yuck factor.” Over the years, though, it seems, San Diego residents have been gradually accepting the idea. According to foxbusiness.com, a 2012 survey by the San Diego County Water Authority showed that nearly three of four residents favored turning wastewater into drinking water, a major shift from one of four in a 2005 survey.
