Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 29, 2008
4. Water Quality –
Officials: Look locally for water supply, Recycling proposed as one solution
By Linda Le, Staff Writer
But as demand increases and as drought, environmental considerations and other factors make the water supply less reliable, state and local water experts think communities should look closer to home for new water supplies.
"It's important that we raise awareness of how fragile our water system is because a lot of our water comes from long distances. And we could lose that supply from a natural disaster or a political disaster," said Lancaster City Councilman Ed Sileo.
Court-ordered cutbacks restrict how much water can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California Aqueduct. The restrictions are meant to protect the Delta smelt, a fish species threatened with extinction.
Those restrictions, along with drought conditions, mean the
To date the water cutbacks have cost the state economy nearly $400 billion, according to Lester Snow, Department of Water Resources director.
"In the 20th century we got water by building dams and pulling it out of the natural environment. That is not how we're going to get water in the 21st century. We're going to get water from investing in local resources like recycling plants," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
Recycled water is obtained by treating sewage to remove impurities and sediments for reuse. The level of treatment depends on the quality of the initial water and how it will be used. Recycled water is not potable - it cannot be used for drinking or bathing - but it can be used for irrigating landscape and crops that people don't eat, such as alfalfa, as well as for industrial processes, recreational uses and flushing toilets.
"We need to double, triple and quadruple our efforts to recycle and reuse water, and agencies throughout
"More water reuse is absolutely critical to meeting water demands as the state's economy grows in the future," he said.
Local city and water officials agree.
"Recycled water excites me for this reason: It allows us to use water more than once," Sileo said. "We use it when it comes into the Valley, it gets reclaimed, we use it again."
"Recycled water projects are just as high a priority as water banking because we have a supply here," said Curtis Paxton, assistant general manager of the Palmdale Water District.
"Of any water in our Valley, that becomes one of the most reliable supplies of water," he said.
Water banking allows water purveyors to store water underground during wet years when water is more plentiful and to use it during the dry summer months, or during drought years.
Plans are in the works to expand water treatment facilities serving Lancaster and Palmdale so they can produce tertiary treated water, which has been treated three times and disinfected, and can be used for irrigating landscaping.
The plants currently produce secondary treated water, which can only be used for nonfood crops.
Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, which supplies water to most of Lancaster and west Palmdale, is building a 38-mile backbone system connecting the Palmdale and Lancaster reclamation plants with distribution lines to parks, golf courses, schools and other areas that could use the water, said Adam Ariki, assistant division chief for Los Angeles County Waterworks.
"Hopefully we will identify other uses, possibly for groundwater recharge," by blending it with water from the California Aqueduct, Ariki said.
Already 2,400 feet of the pipe has been constructed by Lancaster and Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts will make recycled water available by 2011, he said.
"That's how we're going to create new water."
If a home builder pays to connect a park or other areas that use recycled water to the system, it could free up drinking water for the new development, Ariki said.
Sileo said the backbone system can be expanded.
"If that backbone system is continued even into the city of Palmdale, or further west or further east, there's no reason why all public landscaping, parks, couldn't be watered with recycled water," he said.
Palmdale City Councilman Steve Hofbauer has long been a proponent of using recycled water in new developments.
"Would it have added costs to the houses? Yes, but in the long term it would have been a smart solution," he said.
"We've really got to get a grip on the recycled water systems and we've got to move things forward that have been kicked around, like gray water management districts," Hofbauer said.
"Gray water" is collected from clothes washers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks, and is sent through a separate set of pipes for reuse on landscape irrigation. It does not come from toilets, kitchen sinks or dishwashers.
"When a development is put together, that's been the big question: How do you manage that gray water? Well, you create a gray water management district. And just as somebody comes out and reads that water meter, reads your gas meter, somebody comes out and checks that gray water filter system," Hofbauer said.
"It's a regional plan that's going to be done in the city of Lancaster and that is to take recycled water to recharge the aquifers, so that's something very unique," said Lancaster Vice Mayor Ron Smith.
"Once they go through that process of being able to start this particular pilot program, from then on you'll be able to start new pilot programs in different areas, probably within 12 to 18 months," Smith said.
Sileo said the project will be paid for with an increase in sanitation district fees.
"We will be in line with other agencies costwise, yet at the same time, we're building a recycled water project.
"We're comparable to other agencies that are not doing recycled water. So we're doing more with an equivalent amount of money," Sileo said.
Palmdale officials are also planning to construct a water recharge project using water from the nearby California Aqueduct. Providing an area for trails and a nature park, the Upper Amargosa Creek Recharge and Nature Park Project is proposed on 75 acres along the usually dry Amargosa Creek near
Palmdale City Councilman Mike Dispenza said the recharge project is a top priority for the city; other agencies in the Valley are being asked to help fund it.
"It will allow us to store more water, which is a high priority," Dispenza said.
Other sources of local water supplies could be obtained from farmers, who are seeking a legal guarantee to be able to sell the water under their land.
"You don't have to go outside the Valley. Maybe instead we can go to some of our farming neighbors and say to them, 'How much could you cut back if we were to buy it from you?' " Lancaster Public Works Director Randy Williams said.
By focusing on developing recycling programs and groundwater recharge programs, the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, which serves 800,000 residents in western
Like
The parties developed what they called the "peace agreement," which addresses the operation and management of the water of the basin, said Martha Davis, executive director of the policy division at the Inland Empire Utilities Agency."
"Out of all of that exercise, and the amount of time all of the agencies worked together, they really recognized that through these regional programs and approaches there were ways of making better use of the existing resources to the benefit of everybody in the basin,"
Recycled water is seen as a vital new resource for the region,
"We're treating water to a very high standard and have for a long time been working with our retail agencies, partners in the
The agency is stepping up its investments in pipes and hookups so treated water can be delivered to schoolyards, public properties, and other places that use recycled water.
"Every drop of recycled water is 100% conservation because we're replacing a potable supply with this recycled water supply,"
"Rather than taking our limited, cleanest drinking water supply and putting it on the ground for irrigation purposes, for example, we're instead using this high quality recycled water for the irrigation and then stretching those drinking water supplies for the other essential services within our area,"
The vast majority of water facilities in the region has been primarily funded by local cities and water districts, with some state and federal partnerships, she said.
"We're going to have to take another look at what are the resources that we have available in our own backyards,"
Figuring out the sustainable balance between imported water and development of local water supplies "is going to enable us to have a sustainable water supply for our community," she said.
"If you look at the history of
"It was a very successful strategy," she said.
But Southern Californians are thinking differently about water supplies today,
"The more efficient we are with our existing water supplies, capturing it when we do have it, protecting and using our groundwater basin so that they can produce water during drought and leave some during the wetter periods: that's going to be the basis of a sustainable policy for Southern California," she said.
Cash for grass
The Inland Empire Utilities Agency kicked off last year a pilot "cash for grass" program that has allowed some residents to reduce their outdoor water usage by half or more.
The program offers residents $2 per square foot to reduce the grass in their landscaping, up to a cap of 1,000 square feet.
Randomly selected sites are audited for water usage,
"It has far exceeded our expectations in terms of how existing people are taking a hard look at landscaping," she said. "What we found is people have been making really big investments in their yards to make the transformation."
"The rebates that we're offering are really just an incentive to help people say, 'The time is now, let's get it done,' but they're actually making much larger investments in the yards."
Residents in the
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