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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-01-13 - AGENDA REPORTS - RECLAIMED WATER USAGE (2)CITY OF SANTA CLARITA AGENDA REPORT :KOXMI•1`Ill 0"M AD1. It DATE: January 13, 1998 City Manager Approval: Item to be presented by: SUBJECT: RECLAIMED WATER USAGE IN THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY DEPARTMENT: Transportation and Engineering Services 11 • • 011 • City Council receive staff report for general information purposes and file. Over the course of several years, and in recent months, various members of the public have commented on the need for the implementation of a plan for the use of reclaimed water. In an effort to gain a better understanding of the issues involved in the use of reclaimed water, the Council has requested staff provide a brief report on this subject. In response to this request, staff has prepared the attached basic discussion report. The intention of the report is to provide some basis for a general understanding of the global issue, how it might relate to the Santa Clarita Valley, what is currently planned, and what the future might hold. Much effort has been expended by various. agencies in dealing with a number of reclaimed water issues within and outside of the Santa Clarita Valley. It is not the intention of the staff report to involve the Council in the details of the various studies, or the various conflicts that water issues tend to spawn. The only basic understanding that staff would like to convey is that water resources are indeed a finite commodity, and although there appear to be adequate supplies for today's needs, we must always look to the future. This is true for the world, as a whole, and our dependency on the resource requires us to constantly work toward efficient utilization. Although the City is a stakeholder in caring for the well-being of our citizens, we must rely on the various water purveyors within our community and various water quality regulatory agencies to provide for our water needs. Reclaimed water is available for use today, and like many available resources, when economics dictate, the resource will be utilized. APPROVED ,. -F11 RECLAIMED WATER USAGE IN THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY January 13, 1998 - Page 3 FISCAL IMPACT None. ywf�Y Reclaimed Water General Information Report LPC:lkl RECLAIMED WATER GENERAL INFORMATION REPORT Growing urbanization has put a heavy demand on limited sources of water for public community water supply systems. A proven conservation measure to help meet increasing demand is the reclamation of wastewater for nonpotable purposes. Reclaimed water can be used for landscape and recreational grounds irrigation, industrial processes, cooling towers, air conditioning, toilet flushing, construction, fire fighting, groundwater recharge, and environmental enhancement, such as maintaining urban stream flows and wetlands. Urban re -use requires dual distribution systems that use one system for potable water and another for reclaimed water. Dual systems are particularly appropriate for urban developments now being planned, but they can prove cost-effective even for systems that must be retrofitted. The economies arise from savings in the acquisition and development of new water sources and facilities and in wastewater treatment and disposal. Because the public health risk from nonpotable re -use is minimal, public acceptance is high and even enthusiastic. Nonpotable urban re -use is an option worth consideration by municipalities seeking additional water supply to meet future needs. The use of nonpotable water (reclaimed water) preserves high-quality water supplies for drinking, thus reducing public health risks and the burden on water treatment. Nonpotable urban reuse is largely achieved through dual distribution systems: one for potable water, and the other for reclaimed water. Dual systems have been used since the time of Augustus Caesar, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14. The dual system is important because it not only provides an additional economical source of water with little health risk, but it also provides a means for reducing the cost of wastewater disposal. The Santa Clarita Valley is no different from areas all over the world that are becoming urbanized to meet the demands created by society. Throughout the world, population growth is causing increased demands for high-quality water. Although the need for additional public water supplies has emerged as the major reason for investing in water reclamation and re -use in urban areas, the initial impetus in U.S. cities has been to reduce the cost of wastewater treatment and disposal. With the increasingly rigorous requirements for disposal of wastewater to streams, lakes, and oceans (particularly in regard to nutrient removal), reclamation and nonpotable re -use have been seen as less costly than treatment for discharge. Wastewater discharged from the Saugus and Valencia reclamation plants into the Santa Clara River is currently being treated to a very high level because it is being discharged into a stream. In the future, ever stricter discharge regulations will continue to increase the cost of treating this wastewater. The solution to keep the cost of treatment down will be to utilize this wastewater so that it is not discharged into the river. In this way, the cost can be reduced by eliminating the need for additional treatment and by deriving revenue from the sale of the reclaimed wastewater. 1 Regulations for reclaimed water to be used for nonpotable purposes were first addressed in California in 1968 and last revised as Title 22 in 1978. The successful application of these California regulations led to adoption of similar regulations by other states. Federal regulations for nonpotable re -use have not been officially established. The USEPA's guidelines for unrestricted urban use parallel the standards for microbiological quality for drinking water, thus ensuring that inadvertent ingestion even for a period of time would pose little health risk. Reclaimed water used to recharge groundwater or which is discharged to a surface water body designated as a drinking water supply must generally meet California Drinking Water Standards for trace constituents. Requirements regarding organic chemicals are not necessary because the water is not intended to be ingested for long periods of time, so trace contaminants (including disinfection by-products) are not an issue. In the past two decades, the County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County (Districts) have witnessed a marked increase in the re -use of reclaimed water in their service areas other than the Santa Clarita Valley. Within the last 20 years, the State of California suffered through two serious droughts, and the number of re -use sites throughout the Districts' service area has increased from approximately 10 sites to over 60 sites. All of the reclaimed water produced at the Saugus Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP) and Valencia Water Reclamation Plant (V WRP) is suitable for reuse. Although it has been stated in the Santa Clarita Valley Joint Sewerage System Facilities Plan and EIR that "currently, the use of reclaimed water is almost non-existent in the valley," this statement is made, not considering two major reclaimed water uses. These uses are ground water recharge and wetlands enhancement. These two uses require no construction of additional facilities and would be considered the least expensive ways of utilization of reclaimed water resources. However, with the forecasts of future shortfalls of water supplies, these uses also do the least toward providing additional water supplies to meet growing demands, and the need to enhance wetland areas that do not naturally exist in this and region could be argued. In 1993, the Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) developed a Reclaimed Water System Master Plan (RWSMP) for the Santa Clarita Valley. The RWSMP includes plans for storage and conveyance of reclaimed water, as well as identification of users and uses for reclaimed water. In the proposed reclaimed water system, County Sanitation Districts 26 and 32 would provide in excess of 9,000 acre feet per year (8.0 million gallons per day) from the SWRP and V WRP to the CLWA. The current combined average daily flows of the VWRP and SWRP is 12.4 million gallons per day. Based on the CSD master plan for the Santa Clarita Valley, the plan is to expand existing facilities to a maximum design capacity for the V WRP and SWRP to 25 million gallons per day by the year 2010. This is over three times the 8 million gallons per day proposed as the amount CLWA would take at full build -out of the reclaimed water master plan. In December 1995, Districts Nos. 26 and 32 executed a contract with CLWA that allows for the distribution of 1,600 acre feet per year (1.4 million gallons per day) of reclaimed water from the VWRP. This flow is identified as Phase 1 of the CLWA's RWSMP and currently represents about 10 percent of the combined capacities of both water reclamation plants. This flow has been reserved for landscape irrigation at a number of areas within a few miles of the VWRP. All facilities, including pump systems needed to distribute the reclaimed water, will be constructed by CLWA, and the costs for these facilities will be offset by the sale of reclaimed water. Since almost all uses identified in the CLWA's RWSMP are for irrigation purposes and that usage is seasonal, the full benefit of reclaimed water will not be utilized unless alternative 2 off -seasonal uses can be identified, or storage capabilities can be developed. In this case, the best off-season usage would be for groundwater recharge, which would provide stored water for later use. The existing practice of discharging reclaimed water to the river could continue, and wetlands enhancement programs could be continued and even expanded. The City of San Diego Water Repurification Project'is planned to move from its current conceptual stage to implementation in early 1998. This project will incorporate new applications of water and wastewater treatment technology to turn raw wastewater into a safe, reliable, and cost-effective drinking water source. This new technology may be used in the future in various locations, including the Santa Clarita Valley, to expand the uses for reclaimed water beyond those currently accepted. It is clear that we must make better use of the water sources we currently have because it appears. highly unlikely that new sources will be available in the future. Environmental constraints will prevent new sources from being exploited, and there will continue to be more competition for the existing sources. LPC:Ikl