Ontario schools to receive recycled water for landscaping

An agreement with the Ontario-Montclair School District will allow two schools in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District to install an underground pipeline for recycled water for its landscaping needs. 

Ontario-Montclair staff received a request from the Inland Empire Utility Agency to allow the Chaffey district to use land on the Arroyo Elementary School site to install pipelines that will provide recycled water to the Dorothy Gibson and Valley View high school sites. 

“The recycled main service point of connection for the two (schools) is in a cul-de-sac on Corona Avenue so there is no way of making that connection unless they pass through the Arroyo school property,” said Craig Misso, OMSD’s director of facilities planning and operations. 

According to state Education Code, districts are authorized to use other agencies property if it is approved by their board. 

The agreement approved at OMSD’s Nov. 18 board meeting reads OMSD will “provide easement to CJUHSD for the construction, operation and maintenance of underground pipeline for the purpose of conveying recycled water and necessary fixtures and appurtenances …”

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Water world: As we devise new ways to save this crucial resource, the practice of using gray water is largely ignored

By KATHRYN McKENZIE NICHOLS Herald Correspondent
Monterey County Herald (California)
September 4, 2010

Gray water pretty much sounds like what it is wastewater from household washing machines, bathroom sinks, showers and bathtubs but what many people don’t realize is that it’s a valuable, and mostly untapped, resource.

A typical California household produces more than 10,000 gallons of gray water between May and October, the state’s driest months. That’s 10,000 gallons that could be used to water plants, rather than sending it back into the sewage system.

Diverted and used properly, gray water can help landscaping and fruit trees flourish. And in an arid state like California, this becomes a valuable source of moisture during the long dry season.

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Comment: The state should make the necessary regulatory changes to allow more usage of gray water.

S.F. proposes using recycled water at parks

It doesn’t sound like a radical idea: Watering Golden Gate Park‘s meadows and bowers with treated wastewater.

But for a city that for 75 years has relied on a pristine water supply from the Sierra Nevada, it is.

Today, San Francisco‘s water utility will unveil a proposal for the city’s first large-scale water recycling project, an arc-shaped facility near Ocean Beach that would filter and disinfect 2 million gallons of sewer and storm water each day for use on 1,000 acres of San Francisco land.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/06/BALU1F6JHN.DTL#ixzz0yrY6F5ZM

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Comment: This is a great idea. Government needs to make make sure the recycled water is given a proper legal framework, preventing it from being taken for political purposes.

Stimulus dollars bring recycled water to Rosemead, San Gabriel Valley

ROSEMEAD – Last year’s $800 billion federal economic stimulus package is bringing something increasingly valuable to Rosemead parks, schools and businesses: recycled sewage water.

The recycled water, treated to high levels that make it safe for human contact but not considered drinkable, will soon flow through a new pipeline to nourish and irrigate lawns and greenways in the area.

The $3.2 million pipeline was constructed by the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District with the help of a $600,000 federal stimulus grant. And upon its recent completion, it became the first recycled water project completed with stimulus funds in Southern California.

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Comment: 

The “stimulus” was paid for with money borrowed from China. Now the money has run out and the economy is crashing again. Plus we owe hundreds of billions more to China.

As to water, California can take care of itself, and doesn’t need the foolish Feds “helping” us.

San Gabriel Valley: Plan to recycle sewage into drinking water coming undone

Support for a long-planned project to recycle sewage water for drinking purposes is disappearing, with three key players in the project bowing out.

For more than two years, local water agencies have boasted a plan to provide much-needed relief to the region’s perpetual water shortage by building a $210 million plant to purify sewage water and make it drinkable.

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Indirect Potable Reuse: The Solution to San Diego’s Water Crisis

The world is undergoing a water crisis, and San Diego has certainly felt its effects. We import 90 percent of our water, most from the Colorado River and also from the Sacramento Delta, and both resources are strained and run the risk of drying up. The environment and the future generations of San Diego are demanding a solution to this water crisis — a solution which can be found in the “indirect potable reuse” of wastewater. Many San Diegans, however, have expressed disgust at the very idea; the concept of drinking our own waste does seem unthinkable at first. Opponents have even dubbed the plan “toilet to tap.” But the facts are clear. Purified wastewater is completely safe for drinking and has the potential to alleviate environmental strains and aid in reversing San Diego’s water crisis. Our city must take the initiative to preserve our natural environment as well as ensure that future generations are provided with ample supplies of drinking water.

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Recycled water systems ripple out in Bay Area

The “whoosh” of the toilet at the new Rite Aid in north San Rafael sounds like any other.

But there’s one big difference. Unlike just about every other commode around California and the United States, it doesn’t use drinking-quality water.

Rather, the water swirling in this basin is recycled – highly treated wastewater from the Marin Municipal Water District’s Las Gallinas plant 2 miles away. Cleaned to what water quality manager Bob Castle calls “swimming pool” standards, the water, instead of flowing into the bay, is carried through separate pipes to restroom stalls in the drugstore – the 22nd “dual-plumbed” building in Marin County, the most in the state behind Irvine.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/13/BAEU1DSR3V.DTL#ixzz0qqTfxfFF

“Direct Potable Reuse” As A Source Of Water Supply

The National Water Research Institute (NWRI) recently published a white paper that identifies 10 key issues that need to be addressed by regulatory agencies and water utilities in California interested in pursuing direct potable reuse — or, the introduction of highly-treated recycled water into a drinking water distribution system — as a viable option to satisfy the State’s future water demands.

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Disneyland begins refilling rivers Monday

Disneyland started refilling the Rivers of America Monday that has been empty for four months by using a unique water-recycling process.

Crews turned on the water shortly after 9 a.m., said Betsy Sanchez, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman.

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I’ll take purified reclaimed water, thank you

What should we call it? Toilet-to-tap? Purified sewage? Purified reclaimed water? I think it depends on whether you’re feeling disdain, hold-your-nose neutrality, or support.

“It” is a process of purifying wastewater to the point where it’s at least as clean as the raw water that the city imports before it’s treated further for drinking.

I’m a supporter.

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San Diego: A guide to purified sewage

Flush your toilet in San Diego right now, and the overwhelming odds are that its contents will end up at the city’s major sewage treatment plant in Point Loma, near Cabrillo National Monument, and then be discharged into the Pacific Ocean.

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