Plans to outfit the Santa Clarita Valley with purple pipe to carry recycled water are well underway, engineers with the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency reported Thursday night.
Members of SCV Water’s engineering committee met to review the status of all their ongoing capital improvement projects, with a half-dozen of them involving recycled water.
“The use of recycled water extends our drinking water supplies, reduces our reliance on costly imported water supplies and enhances our water supply reliability,” Brian Folsom, SCV Water’s chief engineer, told The Signal on Friday.
One of the agency’s most vigorously-pursued projects involving recycled water is the need to lay pipes for the Vista Canyon development project.
Vista Canyon, which is being proposed by Valencia-based JSB Development Inc., is a mixed-use housing project that calls for more than 1,000 homes to be built and almost a 1 million square feet of commercial space on 185 acres across the Santa Clara River from Canyon Country Park. It would be located between Sand Canyon and Lost Canyon roads.
Folsom, in his memo to the Engineering Committee, scheduled to have the pipe laid by 2020.
The task at hand: construct 6,300 feet of pipeline six inches in diameter for recycled water to serve existing irrigation customers in the Fair Oaks Ranch community.
The purpose of the project, as with the other recycling projects, is to offset potable water demands, facilitating green lawns through purple pipe.
Instead of watering lawns with drinking water, the project would supply recycled water instead, saving potable water.
The first phase of SCV Water’s recycled water plan involves developing pipelines in Valencia – called Phase 1 — while the second phase involves bringing recycled water to the rest of the SCV.
Once completed, Vista Canyon would provide recycled water to the east side of the Santa Clarita Valley.
The second phase would also bring recycled water to Central Park.
Its final design is expected to be completed by next year, Folsom revealed Thursday.
Recycled water earmarked for SCV’s South End – Phase 2C — would mean building new “facilities to expand recycled water service from the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant (on The Old Rod) toward the south end.”
That part of the purple pipe plan is expected to be completed by 2021.
Recycled water intended for the community surrounding West Ranch High, Phase 2D, would also mean building new facilities, with a completion date of 2020.
Each phase, whether it’s 2A or 2D, is expected to cost the agency about $75,000 a year in operating costs.
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