San Jose updates council on $2.2B regional wastewater program, new nitrogen limits and land-use plans

San Jose city staff on Jan. 31 told the City Council that the long-running capital improvement program (CIP) for the San Jose–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF) has delivered dozens of projects but faces new regulatory and funding pressures after a toxic algae event in 2022.

The presentation by Laurie Mitchell, acting director of the Environmental Services Department (ESD), Mariana (general manager, RWF), Kapil (deputy director, capital program), and Eric Dunleavy (deputy director, regulatory affairs) summarized more than a decade of work, highlighted industry awards for recent projects, and said staff will return with planning numbers in May to reflect new nutrient requirements and updated project costs.

The update matters because the RWF serves roughly 1.5 million people and multiple tributary agencies, is central to the region’s water and environmental management, and must meet recently reissued Bay Area nutrient permit limits that require substantial, multi‑year investments.

City staff said the RWF has completed 36 capital projects, has 17 active projects and has expended more than $1 billion delivering work since the program scaled up. Major completed projects cited in the session include the new headworks (a design‑build project identified by staff at roughly $140 million) and a $115 million cogeneration facility that converts digester biogas into heat and power. Mariana said the upcoming dewatering facility will replace open drying beds and “reduce the time that it takes for our digested sludge to become dried cake” from about four years to a few hours. Staff said the RWF employs about 326 people, collects roughly 25,000 samples annually and generates about 80% of its energy needs from biogas.

Regulatory shift: nitrogen limits and the 2022 red tide

Eric Dunleavy briefed council on a major shift in regional regulation following a large toxic algal (red tide) event in summer 2022 that caused extensive fish kills. He said that the reissued regional nutrient permit (NPDES‑related regulation under the Clean Water Act) now requires aggregate nitrogen load reductions across wastewater plants in the Bay Area rather than the earlier approach of capping future increases. Dunleavy said the regional cost to upgrade all Bay Area plants is estimated to be on the order of $11 billion.

The city negotiated facility-specific limits for the RWF; staff reported that an initial draft…