A new, state of the art water treatment plant in San Jose is set to open in July.
The water treatment facility will turn waste water into higher-quality water that can be used for irrigation, landscaping and for cooling towers for the high-tech industry.
"We are going to use this facility as a demonstration project to show the public we can treat water to a level that is acceptable for drinking water purposes," said Crystal Yezman, operations unit manager at the Silicon Valley Water Purification Center.
The water set for treatment first goes through a micro-filtration process for bacteria removal. It then runs through a new, high-tech reverse osmosis process that eliminates salts and pharmaceuticals, officials said. The final step is ultra-violet disinfection, which inactivates any remaining viruses and bacteria.
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"Our future will be relying on facilities like this to meet our water needs in Santa Clara County," said Jim Fielder of the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
The $70 million center will be able to process 8 million gallons of waste water a day, which will help reduce the region's reliability on imported water during a drought.
