California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Western Municipal Water District’s Meridian Recycled Water Pipeline project, which began in 2014, has recently been completed and was celebrated by the district’s Board of Directors, staff and regional partners earlier this week. The new recycled waterline is anticipated to save enough potable water to serve 125 households annually.
“This valuable project is another example of our commitment to meet water demands today, tomorrow and in the future,” said Craig Miller, Western’s general manager. “The Meridian Recycled Water project’s completion benefits our local water supply by using the right water source for the right use.”
The new recycled water pipeline was a multi-phase project collaboration between Meridian Parkway developers, contractors, March Joint Powers Authority and Western Municipal Water District’s staff. The recycled water transmission pipeline is about two-and-a-half miles long; the project’s cost was about $4 million.
Working in partnership with March Joint Powers Authority, which owns the land surrounding the project, Western staff members also worked with area businesses to ensure the water meter transitions from potable water to the recycled water line were successful. As part of the project, 112 commercial and landscape meters were inventoried and inspected and 40 meters were converted.
Each meter required irrigation plans and reports to be filed with the State’s Department of Drinking Water. Critical to the success of the project was the assurance of non-cross contamination between the previous potable water lines to the new recycled water lines. This involved cross connector testing –an eight-hour process for each meter – which was completed successfully.
The final 1,500 feet of purple recycled water pipe was recently installed under Van Buren Boulevard — one of Riverside county’s busiest thoroughfares — which connects to the existing recycled water distribution system in the Meridian Parkway area. The new recycled waterline saves approximately 100-acre feet per year of potable water.
Western Municipal Water District provides water supply, wastewater disposal and water resource management in Sothern California’s Riverside County in a safe, reliable, environmentally sensitive and financially responsible manner. In addition to the recent recycled water project, Western is also working on several other local reliability projects, including groundwater storage, water desalination and a long-term water purchase agreement with the City of Riverside to purchase local water at a lower cost for customers.
