“Purple” sprinkler heads dot the landscaping like small flowers in the grass—at Emerald Glen Park, in the park strip in front of my son’s town homes and at many golf courses. These highly visible colors are required by law to identify recycled water systems-so that thirsty hikers and picnickers won’t accidentally drink from the spigots.
Our soccer team (Tony and I coach under 13 girls) practices at Emerald Glen Park in Dublin. Despite looming drought conditions this year, the park was lush and inviting because recycled water is available, regardless of the availability of water for family uses. So recycled water is “drought resistant” because it does not utilize drinking water that must be cautiously rationed during dry summers.
DERWAis, at last, bringing recycled water to a park or green area near you. In 1995, DSRSE joined EBMUD to form a Recycle Water Authority – ok, that is FAR too many acronyms! The project received stimulus tax money to build the completely separate pipelines. However, pumping stations and storage tanks (also completely separate from potable water supplies) must be built before the project can deliver water to our valley.
Director John Coleman from EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Water District) touted some of the virtues of recycled water at our council meeting last month:
- Re-using some water saves more of our “best” water for drinking.
- Re-using wastewater stops that wastewater from being treated and dumped into San Francisco Bay.
This reclamation will soon become a discussion with some of the Tri-Valley cities to the south of us. Currently, those cities are not allowing EBMUD to use some of their unneeded water stores for our recycled water projects. Instead, that water is piped over the Sunol Grade and dumped into the bay. Those cities are presumably worried that they may need access to that water in the future. But contacts can allow usage only in times that do not interfere with those needs. EBMUD hopes to negotiate current usage that helps our environment while safeguarding times of unexpected needs by those cities.
So how safe is the water? EXPLODE MYTHS – NO ILLNESS: John has drunk some of it in public forums to illustrate that cleaning it three times over through treatments and filtering valves does indeed make it “safe.” Indeed, in virtually 100 years, recycled water has an unblemished record—”no harm was done to humans in the making of this recycled water!”
NO SMELL: Sometimes our soccer balls gravitate to low, wet spots at the base of a hilly spot off the field. The dirty water that splashes up reeks. Is that from recycled water? NO. The smell of recycled water is the smell of “cut grass.” Any additional “fragrance” must be added by the fertilizers on the field.
“Proposed” uses of recycled water in our area include golf courses at Canyon Lakes, Crow Canyon, and Blackhawk; greenbelts and streetscapes at El Capitan and Tassajara Ranch; and school fields at Diablo Vista and Creekside. And San Ramon already has retrofitted 32 sites. (A complete list is posted at ebmud.com or call Lori Steere at 510-287-1631).
Future water shortages—for human needs, fish propagation and agriculture—dominate the headlines. Recycled water is a step in the right direction. So in 2011-2012, finances permitting, the first recycled water is expected to be delivered to a Danville area near you.
The views of this column represent the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the council.
ABOUT DANVILLE
KAREN STEPPER