My fellow Board Members and I appreciate the San José City Council members for acting unanimously today to help our agencies progress in collaboration to expand the use of purified water in Santa Clara County.
We are in a drought emergency. We know climate change will result in more extreme droughts in the future and continue to threaten our water supplies. Valley Water is leading the way out of the drought by working hard to secure water supplies for today and future generations. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to make sure there is always enough water.
One solution to drought is increasing our county’s use of recycled and purified water, which provides a truly drought-resilient, locally controlled water source.
Today, we use recycled and purified water for landscape, industrial and agricultural uses. But we want to take the next step by using purified water to replenish groundwater basins in Santa Clara County and diversify our drinking water supply.
The City's unanimous action helps pave the way for that next step, and we look forward to continuing to work with them on this partnership to expand the existing Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center. Valley Water also has agreements with the Cities of Mountain View and Palo Alto to allow for expanded use of purified water in Santa Clara County.
By working together, we can take that crucial step toward drought resiliency through technology and lead our county out of extreme drought.