DWP pitching new plan for recycled water ...

Excerpt from Contra Costa Times:

DWP pitching new plan for recycled water

20 September 2008

Hoping to avoid the hostile community reaction that helped kill the city's first bid to build a recycled-water project, DWP leaders said Friday that they're taking a new plan to the public early to win support.

"The idea is not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to learn from those who have managed to successfully roll out a water-recycling process," said DWP General Manager H. David Nahai.

"I'm convinced that we can overcome people's reticence," Nahai said Friday at the DWP's first community forum to pitch the idea of recycled water.

The estimated $1 billion project is at least 10 years away from completion and DWP officials are now devising a plan to pay for it.

Co-sponsored by the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, the event was held at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant where the Department of Water and Power hopes to build an advanced treatment plant that can purify sewage water so it can be mixed into groundwater and eventually be served to customers.

A key first step to convincing Angelenos to drink recycled water, officials said, was coming up with a catchy slogan.

The last time, critics beat officials to the punch and dubbed the proposed 1990s project "Toilet to tap," which ultimately helped kill the DWP's attempt at cleaning wastewater and reintroducing it to the water supply.

The recycled water plan was resurrected by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who opposed the DWP's original project when he was running for mayor in 2001.

Now he has made recycled water the centerpiece of his plan to meet water demand over the next 20 years.

"We're going to talk with you, we're going to answer your questions ... We're going to do this in a way that really builds support," the mayor told the forum.

Then, to really convince skeptics, the mayor and fellow city officials chugged a cup of Orange County's recycled water.

"That was a very good tasting glass of water," Villaraigosa added.

Forum attendees were largely supportive of the city's plan to reuse treated wastewater.

"We all know about the need for more water," said Delphine Trowbridge, a Burbank resident and Sierra Club member. "Why waste the water? Why just flush it down the toilet and forget about it? Why not use it?"

Wayde Hunter, with the Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council, is already sold on recycled water.

"I'm totally for it. It's something that needs to happen because water is a finite resource," he said.

Still, he added, "I kind of winced when they were drinking the recycled water, even knowing it's clean."

See - DWP pitching new plan for recycled water.