The San Diego City Council has approved a nearly $3 billion plan to recycle wastewater into drinking water.
Council members unanimously voted Tuesday to begin the environmental impact report for the project called Pure Water San Diego.
The study will look at how, if at all, the expansion of the North City Water Reclamation Plant will affect the environment. It is more well known as toilet-to-tap, but supporters say that gives it a bad connotation.
But Scott Andrews spoke against the project.
"It’s a bad water program," he said and urged the council to vote against it. "You're looking at a lot of issues that have not been discussed, have not been handled by EIRs, so we advise you to hold off until you know what you're doing."
Currently, the recycling facility produces one million gallons of water per day which is used for irrigation purposes. If the expansion goes as the city plans, it will reuse water that will be put into the Miramar Reservoir.
A spokesperson for the city says the recycled water will be cleaner than the water that is already in the reservoir.
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San Diego resident Brian Janner says he is onboard with the project if that is the case.
"As long as it's clean, or cleaner than the water they're putting it in, I think it's fine," Janner said.
The city also says the facility will eventually produce 30 million gallons of water each day making San Diego’s water supply more sustainable.
If the Save Water project passes the Environmental Impact Report, construction will begin in 2019.
