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The San Diego and Imperial County Chapter of the American Public Works Association has named Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s (OMWD) Recycled Water Pipeline Extension 153A as a 2020 Project of the Year at its virtual awards event last month.
The pipeline connected the Surf Cup Sports youth soccer fields in San Diego to OMWD’s recycled water distribution system. By allowing Surf Cup to convert the irrigation of 55 acres of grass fields to recycled water, OMWD has reduced potable water demands for irrigation by up to 100 million gallons per year.
“OMWD’s board is honored to receive this award for a collaborative project, which expanded the use of recycled water while protecting the environment,” stated OMWD Board Treasurer Larry Watt. “Additionally, state grant funding helped pay for the project, reducing costs for our ratepayers.”
The project involved the installation of 1,600 feet of 8-inch PVC pipeline that required specialized drilling and interagency cooperation to be completed. The pipeline needed to cross the San Dieguito River, causing design, permitting, and construction obstacles. OMWD’s design team elected to utilize horizontal directional drilling to install the pipeline more than sixty feet below the river bottom. Horizontal directional drilling reduces not only surface area damage, but also environmental impacts from construction site dust, making it less impactful to nearby habitat and communities than traditional excavation work.
California’s Department of Water Resources awarded $202,300 for the project in Proposition 84 funding, which is administered by water wholesaler San Diego County Water Authority through the Integrated Regional Water Management program. The San Diego IRWM Program supports collaborative water management to increase regional self-reliance throughout California.
