Op-Ed on the Drought - August 29, 2014 - San Jose Mercury News

By Brian A. Schmidt

In addition to leading on immediate and lasting action to change our water use and achieve the conservation we need for this drought, Brian is advocating the "potable reuse" of wastewater, a drought-proof and local water source. There is no technological or health barrier to this, only psychological resistance, and Brian's open advocacy of potable reuse will show that we can make it happen.

In the middle of this extreme drought, recycled water can save us. Recycled wastewater in Santa Clara County has been treated to a level where people can drink it, and on July 18, we proved it -- we drank it.

​The Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center in Alviso had its grand opening with many locally elected officials and representatives from throughout the state, including Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird. Culminating the event, a dozen of us on stage were supposed to ceremonially water some plants. Instead, we had our own tea party moment and drank water produced by the facility, knowing the water is drinkable and that the state has yet to provide permission for us to distribute it as drinkable water.

​This is not your standard purple-pipe recycled water (and please don't drink from those pipes). SVAWPC takes that water, which has already undergone two treatments, and puts it through several more. We primarily use reverse osmosis, where high pressure forces water through a membrane that allows water molecules through but little else. We're using SVAWPC to improve the quality of recycled water used for landscaping and some industries. What we need to do is drink it, to substitute this local water source for the uncertain and climate-challenged water we now import from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

​California has regulations in place for "indirect potable reuse," which has been done for some years now in Orange County and elsewhere in Southern California. After undergoing reverse osmosis, they percolate it underground where it stays for a time before they pump it out for general use. We could do the same thing after jumping through some regulatory hoops, but there's a better approach.

​"Direct potable reuse" would take this purified water and blend it with the Sacramento River water or water from local reservoirs, sending the blended water to our water treatment plants for final purification. Groundwater supplies can be crucial, but the ability to deliver to water treatment plants dependent on surface water is critical for our water distribution system. The state does not yet allow direct potable reuse; it needs to happen soon.

​To be fair, the resistance to potable reuse of wastewater stems from psychological factors as much as it does from regulatory barriers. Here in the high-tech and highly-educated Silicon Valley, though, we can overcome psychological barriers to public acceptance. We have NASA at Moffett Field, whose sustainability base has an existing reverse-osmosis system. Flying overhead is the International Space Station, whose astronauts rely upon their own version of potable reuse. If reusing drinking water is good enough for astronauts, then we can drink the water, too.

​Responding to the drought in January of this year, I called for accelerating our timetable and achieving potable reuse within five to 10 years in our county. At the July 18 event, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews pushed the envelope even further, saying we should do this in two years. Then we drank the water at the ceremony itself.

We can increase local self-reliance, protect the environment, and adapt to climate change impacts through potable reuse. Water conservation can do an amazing amount to help. All water is essentially recycled, so what we need to do is examine the quality of the water, and this water could hardly be better.

​"Reduce, reuse, recycle" applies to water as much as it does to other resources, and we have a clear path forward to making potable reuse happen.

​Brian A Schmidt is vice chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District and a candidate for re-election to District 7. He wrote this article for this newspaper.

To view the original article, please see the Mercury News website: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_26387217/brian-schmidt-valley-should-lead-way-reusing-water