Though the Sacramento area traditionally has among the highest per capita water use in California, there has been little interest among local water districts in using recycled water to augment local drinking water supplies.
The reason? Local waterways such as the Sacramento and American rivers and Folsom Lake provide abundant and comparatively cheap water supplies. The sorts of major infrastructure investments that would make recycled drinking water a reality would cost more than the water to which local providers have access. Officials say they can afford to hold off for now.
That’s not to say recycled water won’t ever run from Sacramento-area residents’ taps, but local water officials say that prospect is still decades away.
"At some point the consequences of climate change — the changing patterns of precipitation, the increasing volatility of water supplies through California – might drive us towards those types of investments," said Paul Helliker, the general manager of the San Juan Water District in Granite Bay.
Added John Woodling, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Water Authority: "We’ll certainly have more time to think about how that happens with recycled water going forward.”
Southern California doesn’t have the luxury of waiting. Districts in San Diego County are quickly moving forward with reservoir augmentation plans under the rules passed in March by the State Water Resources Control Board.
Millions of Southern Californians also already are drinking and showering with water recycled from sewage treatment plants and rerouted through local groundwater basins.
The recycled water, which is treated first through a process known as reverse osmosis to render it safe to drink, is either pumped directly into an aquifer or allowed to flow into ponds sitting on sandy soil. From there, the water seeps into the groundwater supply.
As is the case under the new reservoir augmentation rules, the water has to be treated again before it’s sent into municipal drinking water lines.
Officials at the Water Replenishment District of Southern California use recycled water to augment the two vast groundwater basins that provide drinking water for 4 million people in 43 cities in Southern Los Angeles County.
Each year, the agency sends about 100,000 acre feet of recycled water into recharge ponds that fill the district’s two intensively managed groundwater basins. An acre foot is 326,000 gallons.
The agency decided about 12 years ago that it needed to wean itself off water pumped in from Northern California and the Colorado River because the supplies were becoming so unreliable and expensive.
Thanks to local stormwater capture and the recent addition of recycled water, the agency is a year away from being entirely independent from imported water, said Robb Whitaker, the district’s general manager.
To read the full story, visit http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article206384744.html.