Dublin San Ramon Services District's new temporary supplemental recycled water supply project not only aims to boost their irrigation water, but it also doesn't let anything go to waste -- especially human waste.
Putting a new spin on the old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure," DSRSD recently launched a program to divert one to two million gallons of sewage a day for three years from its sister agency Central Contra Costa Sanitary District to the Jeffrey G. Hansen Water Recycling Plant in Pleasanton, according to a statement from DSRSD.
DSRSD plans to create more irrigation water for parks, school grounds, and golf courses in its service area, as well as those for Central San and East Bay Municipal Utility District, using the sewage waste as a temporary supply.
The previous five days leading up to the project's launch on June 21, officials said "our water recycling plant used every drop of sewage to make irrigation water. Sewage from Central San is a temporary supply during consecutive hot summer days, so we can make more irrigation water when it is needed most."
Spokesperson Lea Blevins told the Weekly that the daily diversion "will help address peak summer recycled water irrigation demands typically during the months of July through September" for the district.
The two agencies "worked together to find a way to make use of this resource in the interim and to assure there would be no impact on the Central San system," according to Blevins, starting with building a manhole to allow a temporary bypass of flow during project construction, which took a couple of months.
Approximately 80 feet of gravity sewer pipeline ranging from 18 inches to 36 inches in diameter plus a vault with gates and a weir structure with flow meter to divert the untreated wastewater from Central San’s system to DSRSD’s system were all built.
Central San will also benefit from the project, "as they plan to expand their recycled water program in the future," Blevins said.
The $490,000 project costs are covered by the San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Program, a partnership between DSRSD and EBMUD.
Comments
Registered user
Del Prado
on Jul 8, 2021 at 10:18 am
Registered user
on Jul 8, 2021 at 10:18 am
What a shame Pleasanton doesn't have a voice in determining DSRSD's actions. We have no seat on their board or representative in decision-making to look out for Pleasanton. So now sewage from EBMUD and Central Sanitation in Contra Costa County is coming to Pleasanton to be "treated" . I wonder what long-range impacts this will have on the quality and quantity of reusable water we will be forced to accept and possibly drink. Never mind the environmental impacts on the Basin that Zone 7 is charged with managing and protecting. Who is paying attention to Pleasanton's interests here?
Registered user
Vintage Hills
on Jul 14, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Registered user
on Jul 14, 2021 at 2:27 pm
@been there, the answer is some of us are. Paying enough attention to feel comfortable in assuaging your fears about drinking the recycled water. Also enough to understand how Pleasanton's recycled water travels through the purple pipes you may have, or probably have not paid attention to, seen in locations around our city. Drinking water does not. Will not. Won't. That's why the above-ground turnouts (Big purple pipes with elbow joints and valves) you see deliver only to irrigation systems, a wholly different system of piping from that which comes from our own wells and Zone 7's distribution system for drinking water.
So relax. There's no poo in the water except that which comes all the way from the Delta through the State Water Project in the canal, and that water goes through a variety of treatments on its way as raw water before Zone 7 and Pleasanton add their finishing touches to it, testing it regularly and making certain it is safe.
Oh, and another thing. Enough to have learned that the water in the ground basin takes literal years to get that deep to be in the aquifer and available for pumping. Once again, Ma Nature works her wonders by using the microorganisms in the soil to filter out any harmful stuff, so that by the time it gets circled back around through the treatment plants, it is as pure as it can be, tested and re-tested by local, regional, and state labs. A great system of checks and balances before you turn on the tap. So drink freely and stay hydrated. It's gonna be a long, hot summer.