Source: IRWD.com
Updated: 11/15/2016 with data from Dublin San Ramon Services District & City of Brentwood
The end of October marked a closing day for many fill stations as they grapple with staying open for the winter where demand for recycled water has become historically low and being unable to distribute recycled water 48 hours after any significant rainfall. For many, a reduction in fill station hours but for others, closing up shop until the spring. How much recycled water was given away last month? Find out in our monthly recycled water fill station stats.
Below are a few agencies that have some pertinent residential recycled water fill station information to report.
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
As reported from the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, a training class is held for new participants on the second Saturday of each month at 9:00AM. This month, no one showed up for the class. The last time this happened was in May 2016. So far this year, 91 residents are trained in the safe way to haul and use recycled water.
Data Source: Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
64 customers visited the fill station and hauled away 8,183 gallons of recycled water, averaging 127 gallons per visit. This data, matches that from July this year where the same volume was hauled away. Since the residential recycled water fill station program was started in August 2015, 61,853 gallons of recycled water has been hauled away.
Upward data trending.
These last few months showing an increase demand in recycled water as proven the need for residential recycled water fill stations is still needed in the Las Virgenes service district. The fill station is open every Saturday from 8:00AM to 1:00PM at the Rancho Las Virgenes Composting Facility.
Scotts Valley Water District
On Wednesday, October 26th 2016, the Scotts Valley Water District closed their residential recycled water fill station with plans to reopen in the spring. During the month however, 89 registered users picked up 7,581 gallons of recycled water. While October 2016 wasn’t the least active month, it sure is a tick down from the previous year when 41,813 gallons were distributed. In total volume hauled, since the fill station first opened on August 26, 2015, 186,390 gallons of recycled water has been given away for free.
Date Source: Scotts Valley Water District
No new users signed up for service this month. An official date has not been set for next spring, but that information will depend on when winter rains cease and when demand for recycled water picks up again. This year, the fill station re-opened on May 18th, so expect something around then. We’ll update as that information becomes available.
Delta Diablo
On October 12th 2016, Delta Diablo changed their Wednesday hours of operation to 2:00PM to 6:00PM. As posted on Delta Diablo’s website, “the last operating day of the Fill Station this irrigation season will be on [Saturday] November 19, 2016.” Hours of operation on Saturday remains unchanged at 9:00AM to 3:00PM. “Delta Diablo is committed to the responsible use of all water resources and supports the statewide efforts to conserve potable water supplies.”
Date Source: Delta Diablo
During the month of October, 168,000 gallons* of recycled water was hauled away and four new customers signed up for the ability to haul water home. Since their fill station irrigation program started on July 11, 2015, Delta Diablo has given away more than 4.36 Million gallons of recycled water through their residential recycled water fill station.
* Delta Diablo annually provides over 2 Billion gallons of recycled water for industrial, municipal, commercial and residential use in East Contra Costa.
City of Healdsburg
The residential recycled water fill station at the City of Healdsburg is now closed for the winter rainy season, but not before 1,000 gallons were hauled away. In total, 178,300 gallons of recycled water has been hauled away since the fill station opened in August 2015. No new customers signed up for service during the month of October. By our count, 27 customers are signed up.
Date Source: City of Healdsburg
Per Rob Scates, Water/Wastewater Operations Superintendent at the City of Healdsburg, the residential recycled water filling station at the Wastewater Treatment Facility is now “officially closed, but [we] may serve interested customers during dry spells.” If you would like to contact Rob to find out if you can come get some free recycled water, call him at (707) 431-3346.
Sonoma County Water Agency
The Residential Recycled Water Fill Station at Sonoma County Water Agency has “closed their program for the season,” writes Water Agency Principal Engineer Kevin Booker in an email to me. We “will open back up next year in the spring. If it stays dry (November and December), we would likely reopen the residential fill station one day a week.”
“For the month of October we had 8 users (existing, no new users) that took 2,550 gallons.” In total this year, 73,289 gallons were hauled. For October, “we went to being open only one day a month. A couple of times it rained, so we did not open at all.”
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Open Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00AM to 11:00AM, the residential recycled water fill station at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been gaining traction. Last month, 9,554 gallons of recycled water was hauled away by 29 registered users. “From October 1st until now, we’ve trained 4 new customers,” writes Ellen Cheng, spokeswoman for LADWP.
Date Source: LADWP
Since the fill station opened (and moved to a new location with better hours), 15,829 gallons of recycled water has been given away,
Numerous holidays will fall on days the fill station is supposed to be open, so “we’ve decided to close operations on the
- weekend of Thanksgiving: November 26th & 27th;
- weekend of Christmas: December 24th & 25th; and
- weekend of New Year: December 31st and January 1st.”
Dublin San Ramon Services District
Activity is down at Dublin San Ramon Services District, 600,000 gallons were hauled away last month, down from 2.097 Million in September. But… 32 new users signed up for the ability haul recycled water home, bringing the current user base to 3,989 – the most of any fill station in the state. The next closest fill station is Central Contra Costa Sanitary District with 2,250 registered users. Wow!
Data credit: DSRSD.com
The last time 600,000 gallons were given away in a month is never. The closets was 2 years ago in 2014 when 750,000 gallons were given away in October. I don’t know what to make of it. We’ll have to see how things progress this winter.
City of Brentwood
Since our last update on number of registered users at the City of Brentwood, 37 new customers have signed up to haul water home. They’re now boasting 1,809 customers trained to know the safe ways to haul and use recycled water.
Last month, 573,000 gallons of recycled water was hauled away. A decline of 75% compared to the month before, but totally normal for this time of year. By comparison, for the same month last year, 2.5 million gallons were hauled away in October (437,000 in November).
The fill station has moved to being open 3 days a week and will likely be on this schedule until the spring.
That is all for now. As more data comes in, I’ll update this post. As I mentioned to all contributors of this blog, after this article I’ll move to quarterly stats updates – unless we have a dry winter and fill station activity picks up again.
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