Project offers recycled water
Jon Chown
Register Pajaronian
04/10/2009
Those pipes painted bright purple you see along the road by the agricultural fields on West Beach Street are not some sort of fashion statement — they are access points for recycled water now being supplied by the Water Recycling Project, a joint effort by the City of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency to provide 4,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation.
The recycled water facility is located alongside the wastewater treatment plant off West Beach Street. It has been finished for nearly two months, but has been undergoing extensive testing to ensure the water quality is consistent. Last week, the plant started delivering water.
“This is a terrific project — it’s green. People are racing to get signed up,” said PVWMA General Manager Mary Bannister. “We have 22 customers already.”
The Pajaro Valley’s aquifer is being drained far faster than it is being replenished by rainfall. In 2008, the valley had 16.29 inches of rain and used 62,362 acre-feet of water. About 85 percent of the valley’s water use is related to agriculture.
But now, wastewater that would have once been released into the ocean after being treated is instead sent into the recycling plant, where the water is first sent into a flocculating clarifier, where it undergoes a chemical process to coagulate and remove the particulates, runs through a series of disc filters to further clean it and finally is exposed to ultraviolet light, which disinfects it.
Once cleaned, the recycled water is mixed at a 2-to-1 ratio with regular water, and then is ready for the fields. Growers must have one of the access points installed on their property, which the PVWMA calls a “turnout.” It includes a mailbox where growers leave water orders for the PVWMA.
Jesus Martinez, senior water systems operator for PVWMA, said the process of installing the access point and turning on the water for growers could take as little as a week.
“I come from the private sector,” said Martinez, who used to grow for Monterey Mushrooms, “So I like to keep things moving fast for the growers.”
So far, growers using the water are pleased. Artichoke and vegetable grower Dale Huss of Sea Mist Farms said the PVWMA’s recycled water was of better quality than the recycled water he uses on his Castroville farms because it has less salt. He has several plots on West Beach Street and said he doubts he would be able to keep farming the land if not for the recycled water.
“We’ve been using recycled water in the Castroville area for the last 10 years. We have not had any problems with it whatsoever,” he said. “We believe the water we will be receiving from this project will be of sufficient quality and quantity to allow us to continue to farm out on Beach Street. So we have a lot of hope and we’re very excited about the fact that your valley, your agency, amid all the controversy, has moved through to get this project online. It is key to the success of agriculture in the valley — in the long term.”
The project has taken about eight years to complete. It cost $30 million, but much of that has been paid through grants — $16 million from a federal program, $7 million in Proposition 50 funding and $7 million in local money.
“The City of Watsonville has been generous enough to loan us money to get the thing constructed,” Bannister said. “Our debt to the city will be paid down as grant money comes in.”
The PVWMA is expecting the facility to produce 4,000 acre-feet of recycled water per year. Ken Silviera, facilities manager at the wastewater treatment plant, said he has the capacity to produce 7.7 million gallons of recycled water each day, which would equal more than 8,000 acre-feet of water per year if the plant were able to operate at full capacity every day.
“We’re really excited about this new project. It’s a drought-proof supply,” Bannister said. “But the PVWMA is still facing an uphill battle in finding a new funding mechanism.”
Bannister refers to the fact that the PVWMA owes about $13 million to ratepayers after a 2007 court decision found that the increases in the augmentation fee the agency had been charging customers amounted to an illegal tax increase...
