Willow Glen Resident

News

Water uncertainties prod search for local solutions

By Tiffany Carney

The Santa Clara Valley Water board praised San Jose residents for curbing water use in the last eight years, but warned at a recent meeting that half the city's water supply could be in jeopardy if the aging Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is not fixed.

To ensure stable water delivery, the San Jose City Council indicated early support for a regional desalinization pilot project in Contra Costa County and a recycled water plant next to the city's Water Pollution Control Plant in Alviso. The council met with the water board for an April 24 study session at city hall.

Roughly half of San Jose's water comes from the delta, but residents who live south of Curtner Avenue in Willow Glen, Cambrian and the Almaden Valley mainly receive water from the Los Gatos Creek watershed and Lexington Reservoir. Residents who live north of Curtner Avenue in the Willow Glen, Rose Garden and West San Jose areas mostly get water from wells.

Water district officials reported that those basins are in the best condition they have been in 50 years, but nature could deliver a dry period at any time, such as the 1987 to 1992 drought.

"We are better prepared for the next drought than we were for the last drought," said Mayor Chuck Reed.

In the joint study session, water district officials said water use in Santa Clara County has leveled since 2000 though the population has grown by about 200,000. Conservation outreach efforts have been successful in cutting water use inside homes, so leaders are now promoting low water use in landscaping and water saving in businesses.

Water district workers are reaching out to car washes to promote the use of recycled water, and encouraging dual plumbing systems in public buildings and businesses. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose was built with dual plumbing, and officials hope to hook up toilets to flush with recycled water this summer.

Guadalupe River Park and Garden also is planning to use recycled water to feed plants.

A new plant to treat and recycle wastewater also is being proposed next to the San Jose Water Pollution Control Plant in Alviso, but firm plans have not been presented. A plant to filter wastewater and churn out drinking water recently opened in Orange County, and similar plants have been built in the Middle East, water district officials said. Microfiltration and ozonation processes that they use eliminate virtually all contaminents from the water, the said, though some users have been turned off by the toilet-to-tap notion.

In a light moment, Reed suggested it be called "opportunity water" rather than "wastewater."

Because San Jose receives roughly half its water from the Sierra Nevada through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, it has an interest in making it secure. Aging levees, salt issues and endangered fish have focused controversy on the area in recent years, and natural disasters also pose a threat to the South Bay water supply.

If a state bond measure aimed at fortifying the delta appears on the November ballot, Reed said that city officials should prepare to support it and apply for money for projects.

Reed said he met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff in March to discuss the delta, and they convinced him of the importance of repairing it.

"The thing that got me was that one 6.5 earthquake could knock out water there and put it under saltwater," Reed said.

He added that most state lawmakers agree that the delta is due for repair, but they disagree on details.

Water district board member Tony Estremera was less optimistic that a ballot measure would appear in November. A similar effort to put a water bond on the ballot failed in 2007 in part because of issues with building new reservoirs.

Referring to state lawmakers, Estremera said, "Water conservation is something we can do while those guys are dithering up there."

For more information on the water district and water conservation incentives, visit www.scvwd. com.