President’s Message
By John Horner,
President /CEO
Morgan Hill
90
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
practice during the construction of the new gymnasium/
multi-purpose room at the Morgan Hill Charter School
site. This facility requires onsite septic treatment, and
the new system uses the reclaimed wastewater to
provide sub-soil irrigation of the sports fields near the
new building. Even in future droughts, those fields will
stay in great condition. Similarly, the architect designing
the new Granada Hotel in downtown Morgan Hill
is incorporating onsite grey water purification (from
showers and clothes washers) to provide irrigation
water for the site’s gardens.
Looking further out, advanced
technologies are now available to provide
similar capabilities for new single family
homes with low initial costs. Recently we
participated in a panel session at the
Sustainable Silicon Valley water conference
where all of the different people and
organizations gathered to work on the
details of making onsite water purification
and reuse as commonplace as indoor
plumbing and central air conditioning.
Being smart about our resource use provides
the foundation for long-term health and
prosperity.
JULY / AUGUST 2016
gmhtoday.com
CHAMBER
M
organ Hill is proud of its smart growth
tradition and practices. Silicon Valley
continues to draw accomplished
people from all walks of life to
make this their business and personal home
base. Morgan Hill shares in that growth while
continuing to ensure a high quality of life and
strong community feeling for those who live
and/or work here. Doing so requires that our
growth be managed at a sustainable rate and
in a balanced manner. Many local political
discussions often revolve around how best to do
this, but the general notion of having a managed growth
rate (as opposed to maximum possible short-term growth) is
almost unanimously agreed upon.
Making ever more efficient use of our natural resources is
essential to our long-term viability. Recent multi-year drought
conditions taught us that this might be the new normal.
Onsite grey water treatment and reuse is one of the elements
forward-thinking governmental agencies, technologists and
project developers are putting into place to provide high-
quality facilities while reducing water and sewer demands.
Our local school district has already put these ideas into