Archived News Release from 2007

For Immediate Release

Redwood City Recycled Water Project Wins National Award

Redwood City, CA - September 18, 2007 – The WateReuse Association presented its 2007 Large Project of the Year Award to the Redwood City Recycled Water Project during a ceremony held September 10th at its annual WateReuse Symposium, which is the premier conference devoted to water reuse education.

This prestigious national awards program recognizes superior water reuse, reclamation, and recycling projects across the United States that advance or have made significant contributions to water reuse.

The Project of the Year Award recognizes successful recycled water projects that have exhibited effective management practices, found innovated uses for recycled water, and established noteworthy public/private partnerships. For more information about the WateReuse Association, please visit www.watereuse.org.

Redwood City receives 100% of its water supply from the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System. Since 1998, Redwood City has been exceeding its annual contractual water supply limit. After much planning, community involvement, and hard work by City staff and elected officials, the first gallons of recycled water began flowing to commercial customers in summer, 2007. By the year 2010, Redwood City’s Recycled Water Project is expected to save approximately 900 acre-feet (about 300 million gallons) of drinking water annually by meeting significant irrigation and industrial demand with recycled water. The project will help Redwood City meet its long-term water supply needs while increasing its overall supply reliability. Coupled with Redwood City’s aggressive and very successful water conservation programs, the City is well on its way to maximizing water savings for the benefit of the entire community, for today and for the future.

Redwood City ’s recycled water system is designed with the flexibil­ity to accommodate new opportunities and new customers. In the event of a drought, the recycled water will be even more important to the community of Redwood City, both for today and for the generations to come. And, by reusing treated water, the City greatly reduces the amount of non-salt water that is discharged to the San Francisco Bay, which is highly sensitive to the discharge of any fresh water — even clean or highly-treated wastewater. This is a significant environmental benefit of using recycled water. Information on Redwood City’s recycled water and other water-saving efforts is available at www.redwoodcity.org/water.

Visit Redwood City’s award-winning website at www.redwoodcity.org for information about the City and its services, the community, recreation programs, education, and local business. Take a look at the variety of City webcams at www.redwoodcity.org/webcam, and subscribe to Redwood City’s email newsletter and other City documents by visiting www.redwoodcity.org/egov.

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Contact:
Peter Ingram
Director, Community Development Services
(650) 780-7379