San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation are expected to sign a cooperative agreement Wednesday with the City of San Diego to work on recycling wastewater into drinking water. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
Coastkeeper Executive Director Bruce Reznik says the agreement obligates San Diego to undertake a comprehensive assessment of its entire sewage collection and treatment system.
He says that includes finding ways to recycle and reuse wastewater.
Reznik:
Look for those opportunities to actually maximize reclamation and reuse, minimize ocean discharge and maybe even look to a day when we won't have any ocean discharge.
He says instead of pumping water into the ocean, it should be reused.
Reznik says the agreement means environmental groups will support the city's request for a five-year waiver from secondary treatment standards at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment facility.
The U.S. EPA issued a tentative ruling in support of the waiver application last year.
The plant is the nation's only sewage plant exempt from secondary standards.
Ed Joyce, KPBS News.
