A corridor of parks along Newhall Ranch Road through Valencia and into Saugus is soon to be watered with recycled water now that its pipeline plan has revealed no ill side effects for the environment.
Also receiving recycled water via the same purple pipe – the unofficial color of recycled water pipelines – would be several Valencia businesses in the industrial park along Rye Canyon to Newhall Ranch Road.
All that stands in the way of purple pipe going into the Valencia ground is written approval from local water officials writing off an environmental report, the findings of which show the pipeline will have no detrimental impact on the Santa Clarita Valley.
On Tuesday night, members of the Castaic Lake Water Agency’s Planning and Engineering Committee are being advised to approve a resolution adopting the environmental study that looked at watering parks with recycled water – called the mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Once approved by the committee, the same recommendation is expected to go to the CLWA board of directors for final approval. After that, workers could begin installing a two-foot wide pipeline from the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant on The Old Road near Six Flags Magic Mountain.
RECYCLE WATER ROUTE
The purple pipe would stretch more than five miles along Rye Canyon Road to Newhall Ranch Road, watering the green space affronting businesses along the way.
The sloping lawns around Valencia High School would also stay green thanks to recycled water supplied by Phase 2A of the CLWA’s grand plan to service 20 percent of the SCV water by 2020.
Once the purple pipe finds its way along Newhall Ranch to Bouquet Canyon Road it can take one of two directions its final destination at Central Park – either north on Bouquet, or east along Newhall Ranch to the River Village housing development.
“This pipeline would serve industrial and non-potable irrigation demands adjacent to the alignment,” CLWA Engineering and Operations Manager Brian Folsom wrote in a memo to committee members last week.
“Irrigation customers would be Valencia High School, Valencia Heritage Park, Bridgeport Park and Central Park,” he wrote.
MORE PURPLE PIPE
The Phase 2A pipeline – also referred to as the Central Park Recycled Water Main Extension – was created to offset “non-potable irrigation and residential demands from domestic water to recycled water.” In other words, to water parks with recycled water instead of drinking water.
The second part of Phase 2 – or Phase 2B – calls for recycled water being brought to SCV’s East End through the planned Vista Canyon project in Canyon Country which involves the “Water Factory” – Santa Clarita’s first large-scale water recycling project.
Phase 2C of the same plan is called the Recycled Water South End Project, and promises to bring recycled water to College of the Canyons, the California Institute of the Arts, Placertia Junior High School, Hart High School and Newhall Elementary School.
It involves laying more than four miles of purple pipe from The Old Road at Valencia Boulevard, across Interstate 5 to Rockwell Canyon Road and the COC campus.
From that point, the purple pipe is expected to cut through old parts of Valencia to Cal Arts, down Tournament Road to Orchard Village Road and into Newhall, making its way to Dalbey Drive and Newhall Avenue.
The 4.4 miles of brand new pipe ends at Newhall Avenue and 13th Street, near Newhall Park where it is expected to water the park and the landscaping areas of the two school’s near it – Placerita and Hart.
RECYCLING GOAL
The estimated cost of the entire Phase 2 purple pipe is about $46.4 million.
By 2020, water officials hope an estimated 22,744 acre-feet of water will be recycled in and around Santa Clarita, watering our parks, school yards, wilderness tracts along our paseos and, of course, on more golf courses.
Are we on target to meeting that goal?
Mike Alvord, assistant general manager for Newhall County Water District, told The Signal in May: “We are exceeding those targets.”
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