South Bay officials want to push solution for drought

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A delegation of South Bay mayors is heading to Sacramento. They want to talk with the governor about a plan to ease the drought using wastewater. ABC7 News looked into how it would work.

A percolation pond is normally filled with water, but in this drought, the underground aquifer isn't getting replenished. The mayor of San Jose and others believe they have a solution.

All eyes are on quadrupling a $72 million facility that purifies wastewater. It's a demonstration project that opened last year. Elected officials would like to speed up the regulatory process.

"We simply need the state of California to get the regulations out of the way so we can move forward with the most important, environmentally sustainable project of the decade," Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

The plan is to inject the triple-treated wastewater into the underground aquifer through a pipeline system from north San Jose to a site near Mineta San Jose International Airport and two other spots to the south.

"It's going to take probably three years to five years to get that system in place. We're looking at moving this as quickly as possible," Beau Goldie, the CEO of the Valley Water District, said.

And it could be seven years before the purified water percolates into the ground and eventually is drawn into the drinking water supply. Because of the long timeline, a major focus now is on lawn removal and replanting with drought-tolerant plants. Valley Water District pays $2 per square foot, which covers from 20 to 66 percent of the cost.

"We'd only done 160,000 square feet before the drought. Since then, we've done two million square feet of lawn, and we need to do millions, millions more," Jerry De La Piedra from the Valley Water District said.

San Jose Water Company is seeking approval to install high tech water meters to give customers feedback on their conservation.

"They're going to have instantaneous information as to their water use, very much like PG&E. One example I saw was you're going to know when you flush your toilet. It gets down to that kind of granularity," John Tang from the San Jose Water Company.

That plan is awaiting state regulatory approval.