Santa Clara Valley Water District, California, USA – early testing for potable reuse, now supplying non-potable water
The Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center is a state-of-the-art facility, which came online in March 2014. The facility takes secondary-treated wastewater and purifies it to a very high quality by using microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet disinfection technologies. The result is 8 million gallons (30 million litres) a day of highly purified water that is expected to match California drinking water quality standards.
The facility is the largest of its kind in Northern California. During its initial years of operation it served dual purposes: (1) to enhance the quality and expand the use of non-potable recycled water, and (2) to demonstrate proven technologies and the ability of the Santa Clara Valley Water District to produce purified water that can potentially be used to expand drinking water supplies.
Now that this period is complete, the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center will remain as a non-potable facility providing enhanced recycled water (combination of purified water and tertiary treated wastewater) to its 900 customers in the area.
Potable reuse in the future will be pursued through the Pure Water Silicon Valley project (see Santa Clara County (A)).
