Sanders vetoes water-recycling project

Pilot Program Seen As Too Expensive

San Diego Union Tribune

By Matthew T. Hall

November 15, 2007

SAN DIEGO – Mayor Jerry Sanders angered environmentalists yesterday when he used his veto to try to derail a City Council vote to start a pilot program in San Diego that would turn wastewater into drinking water by purifying it.

Sanders said he opposes the program because it would cost too much and require a water rate increase after rates have already gone up twice this year. He also said San Diegans have shown a historic unwillingness to embrace a controversial concept that critics dismiss as “toilet to tap.”

Water Director Jim Barrett said the program's cost, which would include running pipes about 17 miles from the North City Water Reclamation Plant to the San Vicente Reservoir, could be $10 million to $15 million, but heacknowledged that was only a rough estimate in need of refinement.

Two local environmental leaders criticized Sanders' veto at a council committee hearing on the issue. Both urged the council majority that proposed the program to override Sanders' veto.

They were Marco Gonzalez, a lawyer who represents the environmental groups Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper, and Jim Peugh, Sanders' environmental appointee to a panel that advises the mayor on water and sewer financial issues.

Gonzalez said the mayor was playing election-year politics and failing to show leadership on a matter of science. He called on Sanders to conduct a formal fiscal analysis instead of tossing out numbers he said were “suspect.”

Peugh also questioned Sanders' financial assertions, saying San Diego has “a lot of money” aimed at expanding “the purple pipe” – or reclaimed water – system. Some of it, he suggested, could go toward the new pilot program.

Peugh said the city needs to “move ahead with something that's absolutely indispensable for the future.”

The council directed the mayor to begin the wastewater program on a 5-2 vote in October with Councilmen Kevin Faulconer and Tony Young opposed and Brian Maienschein absent. At the time, Councilwoman Donna Frye said San Diego needed to explore new ways to reduce its near-total reliance on imported water.

The council is expected to consider a veto override early next month. By a quirk of San Diego government, that requires five votes, the same number needed to approve an item.

Sanders has already begun lobbying council members to change their minds. He met with Councilman Ben Hueso on Tuesday, one day before he sent his veto message to the City Clerk's Office.

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