On Tuesday, December 6th 2016, Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) awarded a contract to upgrade their recycled water facility to produce more recycled water. This project will increase plant production by 70%, leading to an increase from 9.7 MGD (million gallons a day) to 16.2 MGD. Work is scheduled to begin in January 2017 and last 18 months until the fall of 2018. Continue reading
Category: Fill Stations (Page 1 of 4)
Residential Recycled Water Fill Stations. Usually tagged by agency name.
Updated: 11/15/2016 with data from Dublin San Ramon Services District & City of Brentwood
The end of October marked a closing day for many fill stations as they grapple with staying open for the winter where demand for recycled water has become historically low and being unable to distribute recycled water 48 hours after any significant rainfall. For many, a reduction in fill station hours but for others, closing up shop until the spring. How much recycled water was given away last month? Find out in our monthly recycled water fill station stats.
Below are a few agencies that have some pertinent residential recycled water fill station information to report.
10-13-2016: Updated to include Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation
We have just begun a new water year, which means now is a good time to close the books on 2016 and talk about it. Lets analyze fill station activity and ask “how much recycled water did <agency name> produce in the 2016 water year?”
As we have learned from the recent State Water Resource Control Board water conservation numbers, California residents are not continuing to conserve as much despite the fact that we’re now heading into a 6th year of drought. When homeowners are faced with mandatory water conservation requirements, people will do the right thing (conserve), but when rules changed to voluntary participation, so did their water usage behavior. Continue reading
For the monthly fill station stats article, I’d like to focus on the people that make recycled water happen, because recycled water isn’t created by magic. It’s made by possible by thousands of people who believe in protecting the environment. Be it operating equipment, troubleshooting electrical, mechanical and instrumentation problems, and maintaining the pipeline infrastructure buried in our communities.
Many of these employees are members of the California Water Environment Association and are responsible for cleaning California’s water and returning it safely to the environment. CWEA’s members’ play an important roll at every residential recycled water fill station in California. Thank you, CWEA members by supporting this drought conscious program and continuing to protect public health and the environment. Interested in a career in water? Visit cawaterjobs.org
In addition to sharing how much recycled water was hauled away by users at each fill station, we’d like to praise the public employees who make it all possible!
We’re changing things up this time around, the last two articles got ridiculously long – but they were full of tons of important information. This time around, we’re doing a little social media campaign, each agency will be tagged with their data on Facebook and Twitter (if applicable). Like, comment, follow and share the posts with your friends.
Every gallon of recycled water hauled saves a gallon of drinking water. If you haven’t taken the plunge, now is great time to do so. Pro tip: California is still experiencing a drought, do something about it!
I reached out to every residential recycled water fill station in California, 27 in total (DSRSD operates two locations, so really 26), here is the data from those that have responded.
Delta Diablo confirms it is expanding hours at the Residential Recycled Water Fill Station starting August 3, 2016. After examining feasibility, the additional hours of operation for Wednesday service will be extended to 2pm-8pm. These new operating hours will enable customers increased access to recycled water as a supplement to their existing landscape irrigation water supplies. Saturday service hours remain unchanged at 9am-3pm.
Water agencies across the state are lowering their water conservation targets and as I’ve seen around my neighborhood, some homeowners are back to over-watering their grass by flooding their front yard and watering the sidewalk. It would appear that mandatory water use cuts last year have become just a thing of the past.
As water use requirements drop, many agencies have wondered how this will impact residential recycled water fill station operations. Will recycled water haulers who visit any of the 22 recycled water fill stations in the state continue to fill up or revert back to using their sprinklers? How has activity changed month over month or year over year? We’ll show you the numbers.
The City of Brentwood has a love affair with recycled water. Driving into town it became obvious why such a small treatment plant has given away so much water. Nearly every capable vehicle is either hauling a tote or towing a trailer with a recycled water tank on it. At every stoplight, driving by the gas station, in front of the local Ace Hardware, it seems like everyone hauls recycled water, an impressive feat considering less than 3% of the population does it.
For its one year anniversary, Casey Wichert, Wastewater Operations Manager at the City of Brentwood, invited me to tour their Residential Recycled Water Fill Station and Water Resource Recovery Facility.
Last month Governor Jerry Brown decided that water conservation standards could be reduced, despite 95% of the state still being in some level of drought. With these reductions, homeowners were allowed to increase their landscape irrigation.
We discovered however, that interest in residential recycled water fill stations has increased as well and with it, demand is growing once again. Hauling recycled water saves drinking water and “it’s the right thing to do.”
This month we’ve taken a different approach to our normal fill station stats article. We’ve reached out to a few of the agencies that provide data to this blog to ask a simple question “What else does <agency name> do with recycled water?”
The results blew our socks off.
Three northern California recycled water fill stations will either open for operation or add more hours to their already busy schedule on June 1st, 2016.
Dublin San Ramon Services District
- Dublin Fill Station at City of Dublin Public Safety Complex opens at 9:00AM on Wednesday June 1st, 2016. Located on Clark Avenue at Dublin Boulevard, the fill station is smaller and is a back in only fill station. Vehicles with trailers are directed to use the Pleasanton Fill Station. Users will need to show their wallet card, but can use either fill station.