[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 5/15/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

May 15, 2007

 

1.  Top Item

 

Pipeline to allow more drinking water for future

Desert Sun – 5/15/07

By Denise Goolsby, staff writer

 

The Coachella Valley Water District will begin building a new pipeline soon to reroute some Colorado River water and conserve more drinking water in the valley.

 

The new delivery system will send more river water to mid-valley golf courses to reduce the amount of groundwater they use, thus saving drinking water, said Steve Robbins, the district's general manager-chief engineer.

 

"That's a big focus of our water conservation plan," he said.

 

The river water, which is not naturally ready for home use, is already used to irrigate valley farmland and golf courses.

 

The 6-mile-long Mid-Valley Pipeline will stretch from Fred Waring Drive at the Coachella Canal in Indio to the water district's Palm Desert water reclamation plant at Cook Street.

 

About 30 mid-valley golf courses already use some recycled water for irrigation. They include Indian Ridge Country Club and Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert and Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, Robbins said.

 

"About 50 percent of the water we are using is (recycled) water," Desert Willow general manager Gary Piotrowski said.

 

That's about 50 to 60 acre-feet per month. An acre-foot is roughly enough water for a household or two annually.

 

Piotrowski said the course has used recycled water for about two years.

 

"The main reason we do it is to conserve the water," he said.

 

The valley has nearly 130 golf courses. About 110 are in the water district's service area.

 

Golf courses use about 1,000 acre-feet of water each year, Robbins said.

 

The district's goal is to reduce the amount of groundwater golf courses use for irrigation by 50,000 acre-feet a year.

 

The entire project, which does not receive any new water, will cost about $70 million.

 

The first phase will include construction of a booster station at the Coachella Canal in Indio that will pump water to the reclamation plant in Palm Desert. It then will be combined with recycled water for delivery to the golf courses.

 

The pipes, about 55 inches in diameter, will be buried at the bottom of the storm water channel that runs north of Highway 111 to avoid tearing up streets and shutting down traffic lanes.

 

"We didn't want to put the public through that much pain," Robbins said. #

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/NEWS01/705150311/1006

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