Sacramento sewage agency looks at selling wastewater

Californians have grown accustomed to digesting odd ideas that routinely flow out of Sacramento, many of them not so palatable.

But are they ready for this one?

Last week, amid a third year of a statewide drought, the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District adopted a strategy to sell treated sewage as drinking water. The buyer would hypothetically partner with the district to recycle wastewater from the capital-area's 1.4 million people into a new municipal water source.

The idea is not so far-fetched. Orange County last year opened the world's largest wastewater recycling plant and is now serving treated effluent as high-quality drinking water to 2.3 million residents.

The technology is simpler and cheaper than desalinating seawater. State regulators are working to adjust policies to encourage more such projects.

What's different about Sacramento's plan is that local leaders want somebody else to buy treated sewage and pay to make it drinkable.

"It's kind of like taking lemons and creating lemonade," said Mike McGowan, a Yolo County supervisor and sanitation district board member.

At the heart of the issue is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The estuary is suffering a puzzling ecosystem collapse that threatens extinction of several fish species.

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