You recycle your aluminum cans, right? Plastic bottles? Paper products?
Most Santa Clarita Valley residents would answer, “Of course!” Recycling is an important part of our community’s collective effort to help protect the environment and use the planet’s resources wisely. And, Jeff Ford, Principal Water Resources Planner for Castaic Lake Water Agency, is looking to help our valley take its recycling successes up a notch.
Make that a big notch.
“Of all of our new sources of water supply that we will need in the future, this is by far the one that will grow the most,” Ford said of recycled water, a key element of CLWA’s plans for the SCV’s future water resources.
“One of the themes that we always reinforce is that water is a valuable resource, and we want to use it as efficiently as possible,” Ford said. “Obviously, one prong of that is water conservation measures. Another prong is the reuse of water from the reclamation plants here in the valley.”
Ford, who has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for 24 years, shoulders a broad range of responsibilities at CLWA, including grant applications and administration, water resource planning, and communicating with the state Department of Water Resources to manage CLWA’s State Water Project supplies.
Before joining CLWA he handled environmental issues — including compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and the Endangered Species Act — for several agencies, and worked for the cities of Los Angeles and Simi Valley, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Metropolitan Water District.
Now, one of his major goals is to help CLWA and the local water retailers increase their use of recycled water from the current level of 400 acre-feet per year to nearly 23,000 acre-feet per year by the year 2050, as envisioned in CLWA’s 2010 Urban Water Management Plan. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre one foot deep — and is considered to be adequate supply for two families for one year.
Ford said recycled water will be used for non-potable purposes, primarily irrigation of large landscaped areas like parks, golf courses and common areas. Even though the recycled water won’t be suitable for your tap, it will free up other water supplies for potable use.
“The fact that the water we’ll recycle is already here locally is an advantage, in terms of cost,” Ford said, since one of water’s major costs is transporting it to where it’s needed.
In the coming years, Ford will work with other agencies to ensure CLWA’s water recycling efforts comply with environmental regulations and address any concerns raised by other government agencies.
“We have to make sure that we are protecting downstream uses of the water,” Ford said. “We have to negotiate with the Sanitation Districts for the use of the water from their reclamation plants, we have to get clearance from environmental agencies to ensure that the discharge being removed won’t have significant biological effects on the Santa Clara River, and we have to work with current users to enable them to be able to make the switch once the recycled water is available.”
The overall water recycling effort will be done in phases in the coming years. The next planned phase is a pipeline that will take off from the existing recycled water line near Valencia Boulevard and The Old Road, and it will go under the freeway, along Rockwell Canyon Road, and run south to Lyons Avenue and Orchard Village Road — serving the major irrigation users along its path, Ford said.
“It should be in construction within two years,” Ford said, adding he’s gratified by the fact that all of the planning for water recycling will eventually result in an even more reliable supply of water for the entire community.
“This is just one part of our effort to promote the efficient use of our precious resources,” Ford said, “and every drop of recycled water we can use for irrigation frees up another drop of water for potable uses. There will soon come a time when using recycled water for irrigation will be a common occurrence, like dropping an aluminum can into the recycling bin.”
The Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) is the Santa Clarita Valley’s public water wholesaler. CLWA operates two treatment plants, two pump stations, two storage facilities, and over 17 miles of transmission pipelines. Our mission is to provide reliable, quality water at a reasonable cost to the Santa Clarita Valley.
For more information, please visit www.clwa.org.