August 26, 2004

San Jose leads nation in recycling and other green initiatives
West Valley Branch Library earns environment-friendly recognition

Editor’s Note: The following is the seventh article in an ongoing series about the city’s departments and appointed officials. Next week: San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle.

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Mosher explains the meaning behind each of his props as he discusses the city’s water and garbage recycling programs. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

One of the dictionary’s definitions for the word green is “a supporter of global environmental protection, bioregionalism and social responsibility.”

By that meaning, Carl W. Mosher is a green man, running a green city, creating green programs and pushing a green vision for the city in an eco-troubled society.

As director of San Jose’s Environmental Services Department, he’s helped the city achieve a praiseworthy green goal—having the highest municipal recycling rate in the country, with 62 percent recycling from residential, commercial and industrial customers. “We’ve done a good job at educating our residents on what to do,” says Mosher, 53, matter of factly. “We’re in the business of changing people’s habits as well as providing services.

We’re stressing the three R’s—reduce, reuse and recycle. The first one is the most important. There isn’t any city in the country that does recycling the way we do.”

The department, whose mission is to work with the community to conserve natural resources and safeguard the environment, began an aggressive, state-of-the art recycling and garbage collection program in 2002, which allowed residents to dump all their recyclable materials into one can, no longer having to separate recyclable paper, plastics, aluminum and glass into different bins. The items are sorted automatically by trained personnel with new “single stream” technology at two residential recycling centers.

“Our goal is to reduce the material that goes to the landfill by doing more recycling, using less water by conserving in and out of the home and doing things that sustain the environment for the future by developing cost-effective and efficient programs and making it easy for customers to recycle by putting everything in one cart,” says Mosher.

After explaining that he’s not an environmental activist, Mosher brings out five objects he uses to further explain his job as the environmental boss of the city.

Holding in his hand a small purple water drop with tiny arms, feet and cute eyes, he describes the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant—one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the state, which treats and cleans the wastewater of more than 1.5 million people who live and work in the 300-square mile area encompassing San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno.

The plant can treat 167 million gallons of wastewater per day. Located in Alviso, at the southernmost tip of the San Francisco Bay, it was constructed in 1956, and originally could treat 36 million gallons of water per day and only provided primary treatment. In 1964, the plant added a secondary treatment process to its system and in 1979 it upgraded its wastewater treatment process to an advanced system.

Wastewater from sinks, toilets, and drains inside homes, businesses and schools in most of Santa Clara Valley travels through an underground pipe system, known as the sanitary sewer system, before it arrives at the plant.

That journey, he says, can take up to 10 hours. About 18 hours later, 99 percent of the impurities are removed from the wastewater through a highly sophisticated treatment process that simulates the way nature purifies water, but at a greatly accelerated rate.

Mosher is quick to underscore the importance of water as a valuable, lifesaving resource that must not be wasted to continue to meet the needs of humans, animals, and plants. Treating wastewater also protects human health from pathogenic bacteria such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, polio, and hepatitis. Wastewater treatment also prevents oxygen depletion in the water supply and prevents odors.

Most of the final treated water from the plant is discharged as fresh water through the Artesian Slough and into South San Francisco Bay. About 10 percent is recycled through the South Bay Water Recycling system, created in 1998 to provide recycled water to portions of San Jose, Santa Clara and Milpitas for the irrigation of golf courses, parks, farms and in the future to supply water to the Metcalf Energy Center, the Los Esteros Energy Center and the Pico Energy Center being constructed in Santa Clara which will open in 2006.

The South Bay wetlands, along the Alviso shoreline, are part of the largest national urban wildlife refuge—the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. They are home to thousands of creatures and two endangered species: the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse.

In the form of two cute brown stuffed animals, Mosher holds them in his hands to explain that, at one point, recycled wastewater from the plant was so clean, that it threatened the delicate mix of fresh and salt water on the Bay’s fragile habitat.

His fourth gadget used to emphasize the importance of conserving water, so that the resource doesn’t overwork the plant, is a yellow rubber-ducky with the slogan, “Save the Bay, Slow the Flow.”

Mosher notes that while the plant does an excellent job of cleaning wastewater, the sheer volume of freshwater discharged can alter South Bay salt marshes during the drier months. The result may be fewer habitats available for the endangered species that live there.

His fifth and last environment-conscious item is a black half-gallon wastebasket given to all city office employees eight years ago to promote recycling. Called the “eco can” and nicknamed the “big gulp.” Mosher says it works by limiting the amount of waste each person throws away on a daily basis. “We told everyone that they needed to put their garbage in the eco can and recycle the rest of their waste. Everyone said, ‘Wait a minute. This isn’t going to work,’ but it does work because we are recycling everything else.”

In 1993, former San Jose City Manager Les White created the ESD to integrate the wastewater treatment plant, the municipal water system, which was part of the public works department, and the office of environmental management, which directed the city’s garbage contracts.

Today, the ESD has about 450 employees and is responsible for an operating budget of $195 million and a capital improvement program budget of $115 million. Among the department’s major initiatives are to provide healthy streams, rivers, marshlands and Bay waters; reliable water, garbage, and recycling services; clean and green air, land and energy policy development; and community education aimed at environmental sustainability.

The father of four has been leading the ESD since 1998. Prior to his appointment to the department by former San Jose City Manager Regina Williams, he served as deputy director of public works responsible for capital projects. He’s been with the city since 1976.

Mosher says the department is responsible for three main functions: treating sewage, collecting garbage and providing water. He laughs when he reveals that he tells his sons that every day he checks the garbage trucks, turns on the water valves and opens the gates of the treatment plant.

Mosher grew up in San Jose and attended local schools. He received his bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from San Jose State University. Although he rejects being tagged an activist, he confesses his love and respect for the environment began as a young boy being taught by his parents about the sacred nature of mother Earth and the blessings it gives its inhabitants with its wonderful resources.

“When hiking in the forest or in the mountains and you see the natural beauty of the environment, with its blue sky, beautiful sunsets, the multi colors of the trees and leaves and the crystal clear clean water that you could drink when we were in the Sierras, you realize that all of this didn’t happen by happenstance and that we have a responsibility to preserve and to protect Earth so that we can all enjoy it in the future.”

The department runs different programs to help the city stay green. One of those is the Construction, Demolition and Deposit program, called CDD, which has successfully removed construction materials that can be recycled instead of being dumped at the landfill.

The ESD is also working with developers and builders to design projects that are energy smart. It recently won an award for the environment friendly construction of the West Valley Branch Library, the first public building in the city to achieve LEED certification. The facility earned points in every major Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) category, including sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation and design principles. The LEED green building rating system is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Mosher praised District 1 Councilwoman Linda J. LeZotte for helping with the project.

“We’re championing the cause for green building design. We want to be the pioneers in designing buildings that use recycled materials, that use energy-efficient appliances and that are appropriately weatherized,” Mosher stresses.

The department is also working hard to reach the city’s young citizens by going to schools, whenever possible, to teach about the importance of recycling and keeping the storm drains clean. “We believe that when we teach a child to recycle and how to keep things out of the storm drain, they’ll do that for a long time. When we teach these important principles to children, we create recyclers for life,” he says. “When people understand that our resources are limited and that we need to preserve them for our future, they understand the importance of recycling and of reducing water consumption.”

Mosher says the ESD could not do its job without the valuable assistance of its partners, such as the Santa Clara County Green Business Program, a regional joint venture to certify city businesses that operate using environmentally sound practices.

He also credits its recycling partners such as Norcal Waste Systems of San Jose and its subcontractor, California Waste Solutions, for providing collection of garbage, recycling, bulky goods, and yard waste plus residential street sweeping service to approximately 200,000 homes in the city.

And last, but not least, he’s grateful for the assistance of the San Francisco-based GreenTeam recycling company, which collects and processes the city’s garbage program.

For more information on the Environmental Services Department, 777 No. First St., Ste. 300, San Jose, Calif., 95112, contact (408) 277-5533 or log onto to www.ci.sj.ca.us/esd.