San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant

This isn't in Monrovia or even San Jose, it is located at the intersection of the 605 and 60 freeways in Whittier, CA.  It's also along the San Gabriel River and the San Jose Creek, which is where the name comes from.

The connection to Monrovia is that this is where all the stuff that goes down the drains and toilets in your homes and businesses ends up.

In our never ending quest to learn more about the environment and how things work, some staff and volunteers of Monrovia Canyon Park took a field trip to the water reclamation plant for a tour.

This is where they use a multi-stage process to separate the "solids" from the water, biodegrade organic materials,  eliminate the fine particulates and disinfect.  The treated water is then safe for human contact and can be reused to recharge the groundwater supply and also for golf courses, parks, industrial uses, etc.

This plant alone treats 100 million gallons of water a day.  The treated water isn't reused directly as drinking water, but it's possible.  First we need to get past the yuck factor.