San José puts $2.2bn wastewater renewal programme at centre of regional plant anniversary
San Jose Municipal Water System, California · Meeting date: November 5, 2026 · Published: November 6, 2026
The San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility has highlighted a 30-year, $2.2 billion capital improvement programme intended to modernise infrastructure dating to the 1950s. The programme comes as the plant treats an average 110mgd for more than 1.5 million people and 17,000 businesses.
Key points
- The facility’s 30-year capital improvement programme is valued at $2.2 billion and is intended to deliver critical projects while keeping rates affordable.
- Facility management said approximately $1.6 billion of capital work has been delivered in the past 10 years, with another $1.5 billion planned for delivery over the next decade.
- A new digested-sludge dewatering facility opened about three weeks before the meeting, incorporating carbon and ammonia scrubbers for odour control.
- The dewatering project is expected to reduce the facility’s operational footprint by approximately 500 acres, creating potential alternative uses for former lagoons and drying beds.
Full report
San José is positioning long-term capital renewal at its regional wastewater plant as essential to maintaining service, environmental protection and affordable rates as infrastructure built in the 1950s reaches the limits of its useful life.
At a special joint meeting held at the San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility, the Mayor said the plant is undertaking a 30-year, $2.2 billion capital improvement programme. Its stated objective is to deliver critical projects without passing costs to a future generation while keeping rates affordable both now and in the future.
The scale of the programme reflects the central role of the plant in the South Bay. The facility serves more than 1.5 million people and over 17,000 businesses in eight South Bay cities, treating an average 110 million gallons per day. The Mayor said treated wastewater is more than 99% purified before reaching the Bay.
General Manager Mariana Chavez-Bustos said the facility had delivered approximately $1.6 billion in capital work over the past decade and has another $1.5 billion to deliver in the following 10 years. She pointed to engineering work across the facility as an often unseen component of keeping the regional system operating.
One recent investment is the digested-sludge dewatering facility, which opened roughly three weeks before the meeting. Santa Clara County Board President Otto Lee said the project includes an odour-control system designed to continuously capture and treat gaseous compounds from both buildings through carbon and ammonia scrubbers. The plant’s wider odour-management measures include covered treatment basins, long-life biofiltration and continuing mitigation work for neighbouring Alviso and the surrounding area.
Lee said the dewatering project will reduce the operational footprint by about 500 acres, creating opportunities for other uses of former lagoons and drying-bed areas.
The anniversary meeting also underlined the facility’s public-health and environmental functions. The plant has worked with Stanford University on wastewater-based epidemiology to track viral trends, while its site includes approximately 200 acres dedicated to burrowing-owl habitat. For the utility, however, the capital programme is the mechanism intended to ensure those functions can continue as the system moves beyond its original mid-century infrastructure.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: City Council, San Jose Municipal Water System