Mineta san jose airport and to two other spots to the south. Its gonna take probably three years to five years to get that system in place. Were looking at moving this as quickly as possible. And it could be seven years before the purified water percolates into the ground and eventually is drawn into the drinkingwater supply. Because of the long timeline, a major focus now is on lawn removal and replanting with droughttolerant plants. Valley Water District pays 2 per square foot, which covers from 20 to 66 of the cost. As i showed earlier, wed only done 160,000 square feet before the drought. Since then, weve done 2 million square feet of lawn, and we need to do millions, millions more. And San Jose Water Company is seeking approval to install hightech water meters to give customers feedback on their conservation. Theyre gonna have instantaneous information as to their water use, very much like pg e. You know, one example i saw was youre gonna know when you flush your toilet. It gets down to that kind of granularity. That plan is awaiti state regulatory approval. In san jose, david louie abc7 news. So many things to think about. A prominent expert on water issues is here with us in the studio right now dr. David sedlak. Hes a professor of civil and Environmental Engineering at uc berkeley and Deputy Director of the National ScienceFoundations Research center for reinventing the nations urban water infrastructure, and thats called renuwit . Renuwit. Thats right. Yeah. That little acronym. So, were watching, david. So, is it a long timeline to get that happening, to get that water into the aquifers . Well, thats the way Civil Engineering projects go. If you think how long it took us to build the bay bridge, it takes a long time to build these massive projects because theres time to design and finance and build and test before they can be opened up to the public. But were in a crisis right now because and, actually, this has been going on for awhile. This droughts been going on for so long. Yeah, it usually takes people awhile before they get serious about taking action. So, right now, were in the phase where the main thing we can do is conserve water, but if we get a few more dry years, were gonna need to have projects like this in the pipeline, ready to be used. In your book youve written a book called water 4. 0, and i want to show it to the people at home. This talks about all the things that we want to talk about today using reclaimed wastewater, desalination. Which of those two do you think are the most critical . Well, for california, the first thing that were gonna do is reclaim wastewater. So this is the last untapped water stream in california, and its one that weve already been using for a number of years and has a lot of potential to take us through the drought without resorting to seawater desalination. I think a lot of folks are going, wastewater . Ew but its actually you talk about this its already in use. Well, weve been doing this for over 40 years, so if youve ever been to disneyland in Orange County and had a glass of tap water, you may have been drinking recycled water because thats one of the communities thats been using recycled water for over four decades. And nobodys complaining about it now because they have the water resource. Theyre pretty happy that they made these investments, and theyre continuing to invest in this kind of technology. You talked about desalinization desalination i got to get that right and its been in other countries. Its very controversial here, though. Well, is controversial here, but its finally coming. So this year, were opening a 50milliongallonaday seawaterDesalination Plant north of san diego, so well have our first major seawaterDesalination Plant on the west coast just in time for this summers drought. The desalination, why is that controversial . The main reason its controversial is that historically desalination has just used a lot of energy, and that emits a lot of greenhouse gases, and so people are very concerned about any way of producing water that uses a lot of energy and costs a lot of money. And the salt residue from that, is that a problem . Well, if youre on the coast, those salts are released back into the sea, and provided that you have a way to mix the brine that result from the treatment process back into the ocean, it tends not to be a problem. And so other countries who do this have not had any fallout from that . You can look around the world you can look at australia, you can look at israel, spain, a lot of the middle eastern and caribbean countries and they do this without damaging the ocean. Okay, so thats one potential resource, but we have a lot more to talk about. Dr. Sedlak is going to be with us for another segment, talking about the drought, using seawater, and all sorts of other ways that we can save water while were in this big drought. Well be right back. Stay with us. Welcome back to our program on californias drought and the critical need for water conservation. The debate continues about how to deal with the crisis. Some local communities already have an action plan. Drought wasnt on anybodys mind in 2003, but a decision to build a small Desalination Plant in the east bay is actually turning out to be a big help as Water Districts scramble to find new water sources. Abc7 News Reporter david louie shows us how the newark plant came to be and how its helping now. This Desalination Plant is proving to be a major benefit during the drought, but the drought wasnt the reason it was built. It helps to mitigate or offset some of the supplies during a drought, and it is actually a cost savings for us, as well. Were saving about 4 million a year in that we dont have to purchase more expensive water supplies. It was built 12 years ago because of saltwater incursion into the groundwater basins that supply the cities of fremont, newark, and union city. Area creeks and runoff feed into quarry lakes. The water percolates into the ground, but salt water from San Francisco bay has mixed in. Without desalination, the water is undrinkable. There was historic pumping issues here in this local area that drew the groundwater basin down, and so it drew water from the bay, actually, in toward our groundwater basin. And we have an active Recharge Program to continue pushing that water out towards the bay, and the water in this area still tends to be a little bit brackish. The Desalination Plant puts the brackish water through reverse osmosis using a microscopic membrane to filter out salt crystals and other minerals. The water that comes out of this plant then is blended with some well water for taste and then is distributed right through the pipes to residences and businesses in fremont, newark, and union city. And it tastes just like regular tap water. The 10 million gallons of water produced each day gives the district flexibility in its water supply. 40 comes from local sources, while 60 is imported. In newark, david louie abc7 news. Im happy to say david is still with us today even after drinking [chuckling] that recycled water. All right, dr. David sedlak is with us again. He wrote this book called water 4. 0. He is a professor at uc berkeley, and we just saw davids report. We talked about desalination and how that is something that we absolutely have to consider, but you also talk about recapturing stormwater, so if we ever have rain again, thats one way to consider. Sure, i mean, it seems like a tragedy that all this water that falls on our cities just runs into flood canals and back out into the ocean. So if we could capture that and make it part of our water supply, wed be a lot better off. Well, i heard reports that there might be rain eventually, so i was thinking about going and getting a big container and taking off my drain from the roof, and is that not a good idea . It would be a great idea if you lived in seattle, where it rains a little bit every day. But think about it we only had two big rainstorms last winter. Your roof barrel wouldve filled up right away, and then the first week that you needed it for gardening, it wouldve been all gone. What we need to do is we need to build massive rainwatercapture systems and get that water underground into our drinkingwater aquifers if we want to get serious about this. I think that one of the you started to talk earlier about conservation, and theres a percentage that weve been asked to do 25 to 30 . Is that reasonable . It depends where you live. If you live in a suburban area, its quite possible that half or more of your water use happens outdoors, and in that case, cutting back 25 to 30 really just means letting your lawn go brown and not starting a garden or doing Something Like that. If you live in San Francisco or a densely populated city, then its gonna be a lot harder to cut back by 25 , especially if youve already installed things like frontloading washing machines and lowflow fixtures, shower heads, and toilets. That would be a tough go. And, also, how is that going to affect our sewer system if theres not that much liquid flowing through there . Oh, gosh, at some point, the sewers dont work the way they were designed. That is, they were designed back in the days when people were using 75 or 100 gallons per person, per day, indoors the amount that we use outdoors now and that assured that all the stuff we put in the sewer kept moving. When we put in these watersaving conservation devices, the material stops moving and the sewers stop functioning the way they were designed. So thats not a good thing. [ laughs ] thats definitely not a good thing. What about the use of there were times when i was able to use my graywater from my washing machine just to keep my lawn alive when the drought was really bad several years ago. Is it a little risky . Well, no, theres nothing dangerous about it, and its something we certainly can do. It has the problem of not putting the water in the sewer system to flush the solids, but the other thing is its really only those us who are really dedicated who are gonna follow through with that. So i cant imagine more than a small percentage of people in the state actually using the graywater from their showers and their washing machines on the lawn all the time. Its a lot of work cause i had buckets everywhere. Yeah, and i think one might lose the enthusiasm for it after a year or two. So, i know that, in your book, you call for a water revolution. Are we ready for that psychologically . Revolutions happen when technologies become obsolete and when new Technological Innovations are there, ready to be taken up, and i think were primed for a water revolution. And, in fact, you can even see outlines of that revolution here in california. So my prediction is, if we come back in 10 years, were gonna see a drastically different water system thats gonna help us survive future droughts. So, final call to action from you what we can do right now . You talked about some of those things. Yeah, its not really a question of what you do in your home. Its what you do with elected officials being members and being active in your local utility and your city council and advocate not for what we had in the past, but the water system that we need to get us through the future. And we should be prepared for our water bills to go up. Hey, theyre going up one way or another. They might as well buy something thats gonna get us through the 21st century. All right. Dr. David sedlak, author of the book water 4. 0 i want to thank him so much for being here today, and you can find information about him on our website abc7news. Com. Now, when we come back, youre going to see how and why a bay area Womens College is reaching out around the world to raise awareness about water issues. Stay with us. Well be right back. Welcome back to beyond the headlines. Im cheryl jennings, and today were talking about californias water shortage and what to do about it. Mills college in oakland recently held a International Conference on water issues with emerging female leaders from several countries, and i had the great privilege of hosting one of the classes to show them how to use the media and social media to get their messages out to the communities. And the woman who led that conference is with me in the studio right now alecia decoudreaux, the president of Mills College. And thank you for being here today, doctor. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. That conference was so inspiring, getting to meet all those young women who are so passionate about wanting to do something for the world and this whole water situation. So, what inspired you to hold that conference . How did that come about . Well, our students inspire me to do just about everything that we do. But Mills College joined the women in Public Service project a number of years ago. You may know that it was started by secretary of state Hillary Rodham clinton in conjunction with the state department and Womens Colleges across the country. When mills joined, we decided that we would hold an institute to focus on water, recognizing how important water is in general and particularly to women. So our conference was titled women, water, and the world how women can help solve the worlds water crisis, and it was truly inspiring to have 25 women representing 22 countries at this conference, all of whom are in early to mid career level and all of whom are very involved in water issues in their countries. And our students had the opportunity to interact with them for 10 days, to learn from them, to be inspired by them, and to learn from others in our local community, as well. Because we spent a day at stanford, we spent some time here in San Francisco working with a number of government officials here, and it was just an Incredible Opportunity for our entire community. So, now that its been awhile since the conference, what was the feedback from both sides the emerging leaders and from your own students . Well, ill start with the emerging leaders and say that were still hearing from them. They are still telling us what an extraordinary experience it was, how much they learned, how excited they were to not only learn from the speakers we had lined up for the conference, but to learn from each other, as well. And they are very excited about now having this incredible network of other women who are involved in Public Service in various parts of the world that they can turn to on a regular basis. Theyve been in touch with us several times, as well, and continuing to reach out to Mills College, so thats a real plus. One of the things that i was very excited about is that many of them said they wanted to come to mills to go to school they wanted to go back to school. And most of them recognized that that wasnt necessarily a possibility, and so they said they would definitely be sending some potential students to us, so that was exciting. From the standpoint of our students, they learned so much from the delegates. Because we had such an Extraordinary Group of delegates, our students had women who were doing incredible work all over the world, who they could talk to about issues that are very, very much on their minds. Our students are very committed to social responsibility. Theyre very committed to environmental responsibility. They talk about sustainability all the time, and more importantly, they live sustainably. So, how do you do that on campus . cause thats a big campus. It is a big campus. One of the things that our students do is that they recycle regularly. They reuse as much as they possibly can. They also engage in contests, so our Residence Halls will have contests to see who can generate the most compost and who can recycle the most. And so they really do try to make it fun, but theyre very committed to it. We also have opportunities from time to time for students to come and work on the campus. We have been out there digging up plants that require too much water and replanting with droughtresistant plants, and the students participate in that. We, of course, have done the other things that we can do, such as putting in lowflow toilets and making sure that weve got the shower heads such that were conserving water. So we do as much as we possibly can, and much of it is led by our students. That has got to be so exciting for you as a leader to see how theyre taking this to the next level. Yes. Ive learned a lot since i came to Mills College. Im doing more composting than ive ever done before. I am certainly paying much more attention to the amount of water that i personally use, and i think we all are, but i think its our students who helped me to see how important that individual actions could be in the long run. All right, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for that conference, and thank you for inviting me to be a part of it, too. Our pleasure. All right. And we do have to take a short break. Were gonna be right back, though, to continue our discussion on the power of women in dealing with the worlds water emergency. So stay with us. Well be right back. Because she doesnt know that it kills 40,000 californians. Every year. Because she doesnt understand what cancer is. Because she cant spell emphysema. Because she is a butterfly, who fights fires. Because she is my daughter, and the Surgeon General says that raising tobacco taxes. Is a proven way to make sure she never smokes. Thats why im voting yes on 56. Welcome back to beyond the headlines. We are talking about the Global Concerns about water and the role of women in addressing water issues. Mills college in oakland recently hosted a weeklong global conference on women and water rights, and i had the great pleasure of speaking with a few of the conference attendees. Yeah, women suffer most especially coming from