Category: RecycledWater (Page 1 of 3)

Dublin Honored for Recycled Water Use

March 21, 2017 / nick / 0 Comments

Dublin Mayor David Haubert accepts the Recycled Water Customer of the Year Award, which recognizes the city’s extensive use and strong support of recycled water, from WateReuse California on March 20, 2017.

DUBLIN, CA – Water recycling experts and advocates from across California honored the City of Dublin today for using recycled water in nearly all city parks and street medians and for partnering with Dublin San Ramon Services District in requiring land developers to install recycled water irrigation. DSRSD, which provides water service in Dublin, nominated the city as Recycled Water Customer of the Year, an award given annually by WateReuse California to organizations that significantly advance the use of recycled water. Mayor David Haubert accepted the award at a ceremony in San Diego. Continue reading

Connecting a recycled water tank to an in-ground irrigation system

September 19, 2016 / nick / 0 Comments

Recycled water plumbed to above ground irrigation system

Recycled water plumbed to an above ground flexible irrigation system.

UPDATE: 9/23/2016 – This type of connection is illegal for residential customers obtaining recycled water from DSRSD’s fill station. Users will lose fill station privileges by connecting their recycled water tank to any in-ground irrigation. This counts a violation of their use agreement.

It has come up so many times in the past, homeowners want to connect their recycled water tanks to their irrigation system to quickly get water on the plants they want. Even if you’re a DIY-er with irrigation system experience, per your signed user agreement – you are not allowed to connect your recycled water tank into hard-piped or buried irrigation systems.

There is even an article written about it, titled “Plumbing Recycled Water to on-site Irrigation – What you need to know – it is ILLEGAL to do it!”

But yet there is still the appeal, hauling and unloading recycled water takes a lot of time, why not just hook it up?

We spoke with Ben Glickstein, Community Affairs Representative at East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) about their stance when it comes to homeowners wishing to plumb recycled water to their irrigation system.

Shade Balls – A Year Later

August 23, 2016 / nick / 0 Comments

Damian Dovarganes | AP

You might remember around this time last year, millions of plastic “shade” balls were being unleashed on reservoirs in Southern California. Much to the chagrin of arm-chair quarterbacks everywhere, news about using plastic spheres to prevent evaporation and algae growth at reservoirs seemed like a very strange idea.

We followed up with David Pedersen, General Manager at Las Virgenes Municipal Water District about how well these 4″ plastic balls have held up in the year since.

Hauled my first load of 2016

May 14, 2016 / nick / 1 Comment

150 gallon Aquatank II.

Its been 186 days since the last time I hauled recycled water. 6 months, 4 days. November 10th, 2015 was the date.

It had just rained a half an inch the day before last November and that is when I realized hauling water wasn’t going to be needed for my drought tolerant front yard. Besides, I was mostly hauling water at this point to keep my neighbors front yard alive. It worked, their grass was a green as could be but winter rains was what it really needed (and a fair amount of grass seed).

I hauled 17,540 gallons in 2015, 119 trips. I keep a track of every load I take home in an excel spreadsheet I keep on the home screen of my phone. Today, I broke the 20,000 gallon mark.

Recycled Water Hauling Essentials

April 19, 2016 / nick / 0 Comments

You’ve seen the headlines “Winter Snowpack won’t end California Drought“, and maybe you’ve seen the water conservation tables for 2016. Despite a strong El Niño that filled our reservoirs and gave us a great ski season, we’re right back to where we were last summer.

By Governor Jerry Brown’s standard, we’re still in a drought, you still have to reduce your at home water usage. So what options do you have?

Why do we talk about rainwater harvesting?

March 1, 2016 / nick / 1 Comment

Credit: HarvestingRainwater.com

You may have noticed an abundance of rainwater harvesting articles as of late. There is a reason for that. Water that falls from the sky is yours to do with. It would be wise to keep it on your property and put it somewhere that won’t affect the foundation of your house. The best place to put it is in the ground, where plants can utilize its resources later in the year.

The fundamental principles established here are exactly what people have done for centuries.

Do you know which NFL Stadium in California uses Recycled Water?

September 16, 2015 / nick / 1 Comment

Watering the grass @ Levi’s Stadium

On Monday, the San Francisco 49ers played the Minnesota Vikings for the NFL’s first Monday Night Football game of the 2015 season. You may have noticed the awesome bright green grass at Levi’s Stadium, ironic since California is in the midst of an epic 4 year drought. How do they keep that grass so green while we’re being told to let ours die? The secret may be in the water.

Designer Recycled Water

August 12, 2015 / nick / 0 Comments

Designer water

The notion of Designer Water should not be a new concept, but to many it is.

Think about this for a moment. You can buy a dress shirt off the rack which fits but not perfectly, or you can get a designer shirt tailored to your body which will make heads turn. Designer clothing has a similar function compared to designer recycled water.

Depending on where you live and what level of treatment is performed at a wastewater treatment plant near you determines the type of recycled water available. Continue reading

We must sacrifice our lawns so MLB can keep theirs green

July 29, 2015 / nick / 0 Comments

The Association of California Water Agencies and Sergio Romo of the World Champion San Francisco Giants have a message for you: “This summer, brown is the new green. Pretty much just let your lawn go brown, keep your watering to a minimum. That’s what’s up.”

The real message: You need to let your grass die so “we” can use that water to keep our playing field green.

Sounds kind of hypocritical to me.

Is Hauling Recycled Water Economical?

July 22, 2015 / nick / 0 Comments

Water is a finite resource, much like oil. And water comes with a cost, much like oil. The difference is we need water to survive. Our bodies are made up of 55-65% water. Without it we dehydrate and eventually die. Some would argue that oil is the same way, except society lasted for thousands of years without it. However, the oil industry charges a steep price for oil. With those profits they build pipelines for the largest users, like airports use jet fuel and ships at port use diesel.

When it comes to water, we as a society have built pipelines to deliver water from faraway lands to other remote places. We’ve run pipes to our homes, businesses and parks. There are drinking water mains in the street that have charged hydrants for firemen to use, baseball and football stadiums are plumbed with the stuff and yes, even oil refineries use drinking water to manufacture the oil we need to keep everything mechanical running.

But water is cheap, maybe too cheap.