The Coastside County Water District has offered to pay for a proposed recycled water project in an effort to secure new water supplies for the future. Just what that offer might cost water users remains an open question, however.

In a presentation to the directors at the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside last week, CCWD General Manager Dave Dickson proposed that his district take on the costs of the project as a way to expedite water reclamation to the Coastside.

“I basically said ... that we believe that a partnership between CCWD and SAM would be the most effective way to implement the water recycling project,” Dickson said. “I said that obtaining additional water supplies are our highest priority.” Costing about $5 million, the infrastructure needed to reclaim wastewater has been studied by both the water district and officials at SAM. In recent weeks, cooperation between the two agencies has broken down as both utility agencies have claimed the authority to distribute reclaimed water to large water consumers on the Coastside.

In a deadlocked vote in September, the SAM board of directors declined an offer to establish a joint committee with the water district to investigate recycled water.

Voting against the proposal to form the committee, sewer directors from the Montara and Granada districts said they planned to go ahead with the recycled water project solely as a sewer district project.

But water district officials argued that the sewer authority had no legal right to distribute water to customers served by CCWD.

Explaining the water district’s new bid to finance the project, Dickson said that, since the main consumers of recycled water are CCWD customers, it made sense that his district should float the costs for the project.

“In the past, sewer directors have said, ‘What does CCWD bring to the table? Why should we work with them?’” he said. “Well, we’re prepared to bring our wallet to the table.”

Water reclamation could save the Coastside 190 million gallons of potable water a year and is widely supported by the public. Within Half Moon Bay’s boundaries, several large businesses have been identified as appropriate customers for repurposed sewer water, which is not fit for drinking, but is suitable for watering agriculture or golf courses. Large local water consumers such as the Half Moon Bay Golf Links and Nurserymen’s Exchange currently use hundreds of thousands of gallons of freshwater a day, primarily from the dwindling Hetch Hetchy water supply.

Consultants working for the sewer authority have estimated that construction of any project to build a treatment plant to reclaim wastewater likely won’t begin until 2012. Many features of that treatment facility, such as the size and the purification method, will determine the overall construction costs of the project.

Dickson said that the water district would finance the project by issuing bonds as a way to be involved in bringing recycled water to its customers. Most of the costs of issuing bonds would be paid by the large consumers of recycled water, although all ratepayers would take on some financial risk from having a large bond issued by their district, Dickson said.

The sewer authority is expected to review the water district’s proposal and respond in the coming weeks.