The City of San José, California, has opened a $177 million dewatering facility at the San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility, replacing open-air lagoons and drying beds with a mechanical process that reduces biosolids dewatering time from approximately four years to less than one day.

The new facility enables biosolids to be transported off-site for use as a soil amendment, compost or fertilizer. The city estimates the facility will produce and transport more than 100,000 tons of biosolids annually.

The project also reduces the dewatering footprint from more than 500 acres of lagoons and drying beds to a 10-acre site. An odor control system captures and treats gaseous compounds generated during dewatering.

The regional facility treats an average of 110 million gallons per day, serving approximately 1.5 million residents and more than 17,000 commercial and industrial customers across eight South Bay cities. The cities of San José and Santa Clara jointly own the facility, with San José managing its operations and capital improvement program.

The project is part of a broader effort to modernize infrastructure at the facility, which has received approximately $1.2 billion in capital improvements over the past decade.