San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo wants to up the ante on water conservation.
Liccardo wants San Jose to become the largest city in the nation to rely heavily on recycled water.
At the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center in San Jose, technology is already recycling eight million gallons of water a day so it can be used for irrigation and industrial uses. Liccardo wants to triple that amount within the next two to three years.
"San Jose will be the largest city in the country to deploy this technology," Liccardo said.
Landing that title for San Jose won't be cheap -- the plant alone cost $72 million to build.
"We know it will cost tens of millions of dollars," Liccardo said.
Result from the recent snow pack were dismal. In addition, a senior Nasa scientist last week warned that California only has about a year's worth of water left and called for everyone to begin looking for new ways to deal with the drought crisis.
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The Santa Clara Valley Water District said right now recycled water is only 5 percent of Santa Clara County's water supply. The goal is to get that to 10 percent in the next 10 years.
"We're tapped out with what we can capture in our reservoirs, so recycled water is a cost effective way to expand our existing water supply," said Marty Grimes, Santa Clara Valley Water District spokesman said.
The plan is for by year 2020 the county will not use recycled water to water our plants, but also rely on it to recharge groundwater basins, where the district gets its drinking water.
The water supply is so bleak that the state water board on Tuesday will vote on whether to order Californians to only water their yards twice a week or face stiff fines.
