PAGE 8 | INSIDE SANTA CLARA | SUMMER 2025
WHAT HAPPENS CITY NEWS
When You Flush?
Most of us haven’t thought about the water cycle since grade school, but those lessons of nature’s water cycle left out critical elements of urban water systems. Rainfall replenishes reservoirs and recharges groundwater. Water enters our potable system through groundwater wells, which then flows into household plumbing systems. We flush our toilets. Sewage ends up at the Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF), co-owned by San José and Santa Clara. What happens in the next ten minutes will amaze you! At the RWF, wastewater is screened to remove any large debris, followed by grit chambers that extract sand and gravel. The water then goes into large tanks, where floating fats and settled solids are then skimmed off. Pumped air helps naturally occurring bacteria remove
equipment cooling and dual-plumbing- accounts for ≈20% of the City’s overall water use. In the past, solids from wastewater remained in lagoons and drying beds near the South Bay wetlands for four years. With the introduction of the RWF’s new Digested Sludge Dewatering Facility set to launch in fall 2025, this processing will now take place in 24 hours within an enclosed, mechanical system. This advancement will free up 750 acres of land and accelerate our water cycle. The image below shows advanced processing in our local water cycle occurs all day, every day, keeping our water supply healthy for generations to come.
pollutants. Clarifiers settle out bacteria that mechanical arms scrape away. Some of the treated water diverts to Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center (SVAWPC), where it’s purified using microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light disinfection. The remaining water flows through the RWF’s natural filtration beds. Chlorine is added to eliminate any viruses and bacteria and then is neutralized to protect aquatic life; approximately ≈80% of RWF-treated water flows into the Bay. South Bay Water Recycling processes the remaining ≈20% of RWF’s treated water. By blending their recycled water with purified water from SVAWPC, the quality of Santa Clara’s recycled water is exceptionally high. This recycled water – used for irrigation, industrial processes,
Every ten minutes, water cleaned at the RWF could fill ten Olympic swimming pools!
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