The Morning Report
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Hasn’t nature perfected the process of cleaning water through its own processes? Why is it that we have had the technology for decades to clean water and yet we still use the term “wastewater” to define sewage? And now there are even more creative terms being used to define different types of wastewater: gray for water that is produced only from sinks and showers versus lavatories.
How many more words do we have to come up with to define what simply water is?
Don’t we all care about the same thing: clean water to drink without the risk of unknown health consequences and oceans that we can swim in?
Why separate water production from wastewater treatment? Aren’t they really synonymous and interrelated so shouldn’t government regulations and agencies be combined to improve efficiencies?
Water recycling, or reclamation as it’s also been termed, has met fierce opposition in San Diego.
Have the utilities done all they can do to provide incentives and is it now in the hands of developers to use and implement what has been provided to them? Maybe developers are the ones behind the eight ball? Or is the maze of red tape forcing developers to stay away from coming up with creative solutions for water reuse?
Separate the question of whether the South Bay Power plant on Chula Vista’s bay front is supported or not, I commend the city of Chula Vista, the Sweetwater Authority, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the former owner Duke Energy for investigating the use of sustainable concepts by reclaiming almost six million gallons per day of sewage for the production of cooling water to be used for a new power plant!
So let me throw this out there for bait, is sewage wastewater going to one day be a resource that we can capture and turn into something that has economic value?
That is exactly where we are going with our Green Village project in National City, we consider “wastewater” a resource and are planning to do just what Duke proposed and reclaim it for irrigation and cooling water. Are we ahead of the times or just figuring out a way to use the technologies that have existed for decades by creating a process?
Keep your eyes tuned to our website as we work with the strong leaders of the Sweetwater and San Diego County Water Authorities as well as the Metropolitan Wastewater Joint Powers Authority to show how wastewater is actually a water resource.