Why is the fact a journalist went to the scene of a story have to do with the actual story?

Nothing.

Good work LPFD and PPD.

I always wondered what the heck they were building on that corner. Now that I know it is a desalinization plant, I'm curious as to where they will get the salt water. Do they have a pipeline to the bay?

Maybe someone can ride the City's segway over from the State of the City venue to the new desalinization plant.

I did not know that our ground water was saline. Instead, I believe it is rather high in minerals, and therefore, the plant is the
Mocho Groundwater Demineralizaton Plant.

The U. S. is quite behind in science and technology compared to other countries, and here is another example of it.

Frank is quite right that the name and purpose of the plant is demineralization, not desalination, as per the Zone 7's website:
Web Link

This is Zone 7's way of by-passing our vote to not use our waste water for potable uses. They are doing this to give you an insurance of clean, healthy water. Reverse Osmosis is one of the best way to filter out impurities from the water and salt being one of thous things we don't need in our water. The question is will R.O. water take out all that we or Industries in our system like Roche Molecular and others may put in the water as it goes down the drain? I could go on & on but we could use a separate blog just for that. Keep your head up and ears open for more info from Zone 7.

Concerned Pleasanton citisen.

Mr. Soccer, like I said, most Americans don't understand most anything of a scientific or technical nature including what demineralization means versus treating waste water to make it potable. Do you know? Your post suggests otherwise. I am sure that I know.

By the way, can you reference any community in the U. S. that actually recycles waste water as potable and delivers it to its population?

To Frank:

I would like to see you answer your own question. Can you do the same things that you suggest Mr. Soccer should do?

I never understood the ignorance of the voters when they rejected to allow Zone 7 to inject 'treated waste water' into the groundwater basin. That water would have then percolated down to the aquifer and been naturally filtered over time before being pumped to a treatment facility and then to the residences of Pleasanton. The treated waste water in itself would have been cleaner than the water pumped directly from the delta that Zone 7 uses for 80 percent of the 'potable' water they supply. But citizens like Mr S. always believe there is some sort of conspiracy behind anything they do not quite comprehend or understand. And by the way, if you ever travel to Orange county down south and drink the water, they've been doing what Zone 7 wanted to do since 1976.

Yea, we can't have RO treated waste water filtered again naturally by the earth yet we'll dump our greywater on our plants.

(If I recall, Zone 7 currently injects Delta water into the groundwater basin during the rainy season to prevent permanent ground subsidence from summertime pumping activity.)

Not endorsing either the use of injected R.O. water or advocating the blocking of its use, but I had to chuckle a bit at Steve's resounding ensorsement:
" And by the way, if you ever travel to Orange county down south and drink the water, they've been doing what Zone 7 wanted to do since 1976. "

... and wonder whether he truly thought this was a selling point? Did this introduction of "recycled" waste/byproducts enhance or did it possibly pully down the environmental well-being of the residents?

Grace-It was just a comment. Nothing more, nothing less. Not a selling point and by no means was it a resounding endorsement. Someone asked to name a community that used recycle water as potable water, and I gave one example. And since it was close and in California, I thought people could more easily relate to it. I'm pretty sure a good portion of Pleasanton residences have traveled down south before, yet I never heard anyone ever mention the fact that Orange county was using waste water in there drinking fountains, and they would never go there again. Where do you think other waste agencies, especially the inland ones, dump their treated waste? Into rivers, etc, with some of those flowing into the delta. Again, 80 percent of what Zone 7 supplies is from the delta. So to quote the question asked before, "did this introduction of "recycled" waste/byproducts enhance or did it possibly pully(?) down the environmental well-being of the (Pleasanton) residents?"