Wastewater is anything but waste.  Currently there is a four city partnership between Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, and Cotati, known as the Incremental Recycled Wastewater Program.  The goal of the program is in part committed to the disposal of 6.7 billion gallons a year of wastewater generated by the four cities.

The pipeline that was built to the Geysers had the capacity to pump about 400 million gallons of wastewater a year to be injected into the ground and converted to steam to run the turbine plants.  This represents less than ten percent of the wastewater generated.

Agriculture in some areas has become highly dependent on wastewater to grow crops.  Some of the original programs called for the cities to pay for the pipeline development and to pay for pumping and irrigating costs.

The City of Petaluma discharges about 1.3 billion gallons a year into the surrounding marshlands and into the Petaluma River. Approximately 700 million gallons of wastewater is being used on golf courses, city landscaping, and a few local dairies continue to rely on it for double cropping to reduce feed costs.

The scientific community agrees that it is not safe for use to water livestock, and it cannot be used for human consumption. There is a reason why.

Options?  Wastewater will have to be treated at a much higher level before leaving treatment plants. For the past ten years I have continued to believe water is becoming so precious that reverse osmosis treatment will become mandatory.  My concern is that agriculture may once again be left out of the head count for what remains of unallocated water supplies here in Sonoma County. Marin County should also be forced to pay the cost of additional treatment to offset the looming water shortages that are in their immediate future.

Signed,

John E. King