Silicon Valley Mayors Drink Filtered Sewage Water, ‘Delicious, Good Stuff’

To prove a point that it may become the Silicon Valley cocktail of the future, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews and other Silicon Valley leaders gulped down some filtered, cleaned and disinfected sewage water.

As they stood before cameras at a Monday press conference at a public water treatment plant in Alviso, Licardo called the “toilet to tap” libation “delicious.” Matthews said it’s “good stuff!”

The consortium of mayors and industry leaders unveiled plans for an $800 million increase of recycled water in Santa Clara County over the next decade.

Once thought of as a solution for landscaping, recycled water combined with existing groundwater, could be used by the public to drink. Overall California has not adopted the reusable water process in most counties, but Orange County residents have been consuming purified wastewater for the past seven years, reported the San Jose Mercury News.

Liccardo is hoping that state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, will sponsor a bill in support of recycled water usage, yet so far he has not picked up the mantle. Moreover, Liccardo and others may be out of luck, given that the deadline for introducing new bills has already expired for 2015.

Miriam Gordon, state director of the Oakland based Clean Water Action, although in favor of recycling, offered some restraint on moving too fast. “While the project is likely to be very environmentally beneficial, the impacts need to be considered so construction can occur in ways that plan for the protection of air, water quality and human health,” she said.

“It’s excellent quality. We’ve got to consider all of the options on the table, and this is one of them.” said Gary Kremen, chairman of the water district’s board, who called recycled water “drought proof.”