Did you know that only one percent of treated water piped to houses and businesses is actually consumed?  The vast majority of it goes to irrigating lawns, crops and industrial uses.  Some of the water coming out of your tap has traveled many hundreds of miles, aided by large electric pumps to grace your presence for a sweet second before exiting through your drain.  Climate change, decreases in diversions from the San Francisco Bay Delta and the Colorado River, and population growth are all threatening southern California’s water supplies, so Central Basin along with several other water agencies are doing their part to increase the use of recycled water.

You’ve always been told to recycle your paper or bottles, so why not also your water?  In places like Southern California, Sydney and Singapore, recycling water has become more popular because it makes water local again, making cities more self-reliant and preventing the need for a significant portion of water imports.  As water scarcity becomes a greater issue in Southern California, more people are learning about the importance of recycled wastewater as a part of supply portfolios.  

Earlier this month, USA Today devoted an article to explaining the need for wastewater recycling, and while they made clear the need and safety of recycled water, they didn’t do much to help recycled water get over its biggest opponent, it’s image with a title that fed into the ’yuck factor’: “From toilets to tap: How we get tap water from sewage.” The WateReuse Association’s executive director, Wade Miller, pointed this out in a letter to the editor. Miller stresses that the key to getting over the ‘yuck factor’ is to learn about the technologies and disinfection processes that remove impurities to make the water safe to use again.

Wastewater treatment can be tailored to meet the water quality requirements of a planned use. Water used in factories and in irrigation requires less treatment than drinking water, and recycling wastewater for our largest users is a reliable, efficient way Central Basin supports local business.  Central Basin’s Southeast Water Reliability Project does this by delivering over 5 billion gallons of recycled water to commercial, industrial, and commercial sites, reducing the regional demand on imported water.   Some agencies treat their wastewater even further, so that it may be used as drinking water.  If the water is treated to the highest standards, why do people think it is still so gross?  We use and reuse all the water molecules on earth, it is the circle of life, poetic and beautiful, modern and efficient, but most of all - it’s safe!   Certainly not anything to be grossed out by.

During such hard-hitting economic times, SWRP is creating nearly 300 local jobs, providing $2 million in local tax revenue and increasing local business revenue by $49 million.

For more information about the positive economic impact the project will bring to the community, check out the report done by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation here.

About the project: SWRP is a recycled water infrastructure project that will reduce reliance on imported water by 25%. Increasing use of recycled water for industrial and irrigation purposes will help drought proof the region by conserving precious drinking water for future use.

Connecting recycled water between the cities of Montebello and Pico Rivera, a portion of the 30-inch pipeline was constructed to hang along the underside of the Rio Hondo Bridge.

In order to allow for movement from potential seismic activity, installation of expansion joints at each end will allow for up to 12-inches of  movement - a safety feature that can also help prevent damage to the pipeline and the bridge.

Currently in Phase I of SWRP, this connection is part of approximately 6.7 miles of recycled water pipeline in the cities of Montebello and Pico Rivera that will conserve hundreds of gallons of drinking water through the increased industrial and irrigation use of recycled water.

BEFORE: A receiving pit on Beverly Blvd in Pico Rivera

AFTER: Moving right along! The same receiving pit, all cleaned up!

To stay on schedule with our Southeast Water Reliability Project, our construction crews will be laying 10,000 feet of recycled water pipeline before the end of July. The entire Phase 1 alignment is 25,000 feet of pipeline. If you take into account construction done earlier this year (we broke ground in January 2010), Phase 1 of our recycled water expansion project is 40% complete!

Questions or comments about construction? please call our toll-free project hotline at (888) 341-5707