San Francisco officials gathered Wednesday along Sunset Boulevard’s greenbelt, a 2-mile strip of plants and trees along the road, to celebrate an integral financing step in a project to deliver recycled water as the landscape’s irrigation source instead of potable water. Sunset Boulevard is a main thoroughfare running through the Sunset District connecting from Golden Gate Park to Lake Merced. The 60-acre greenbelt along both sides of the road is covered in trees and native plants that create habitats for critters and provide shade for residents. But it uses drinking water for irrigation, water that could be under threat amid droughts. Connecting the green space’s irrigation to a recycled water transmission pipe could save about 40 million gallons in drinking water per year.

Other water recycling news:

• San Diego Red (Tijuana, Mex.): San Diego County’s first potable reuse plant: Pure Water Oceanside