This makes economic sense. The same argument works with the mess that is the current “cap and trade” global warming bill. Why should everyone, no matter what amount of energy they use, be forced to pay higher prices for energy to combat global warming?

Probably not directly but from what the article states, the “drinkable” water is dumped back into the Hillsborough:

His proposal… is to build a wastewater treatment plant to purify wastewater to drinkable quality, then inject it into the ground for natural filtration before it flows into the Hillsborough River, the city’s primary source of drinking water.

That sounds ok to me. You’re not drinking the purified water directly. Your water treatment plant would take that small amount of water released into the river that was mixed with the rest of the water (the solution to pollution is dilution)in the river and then do whatever water treatment plants do. Not so scary. You’re getting your water from a river where fish pee and shit willy nilly. This seems a bit prudish from Ms. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Don’t forget the added bonus: the water you are dumping into the ocean would be cleaner too.