PALMDALE – The Palmdale Recycled Water Authority (PRWA) celebrated the first use of its tertiary treated water with a symbolic “turning on the valves” ceremony at a press conference Tuesday held at McAdam Park in Palmdale.
McAdam Park is the first park in Palmdale to be irrigated with reclaimed water.
The recycled water, which was treated at the Sanitation District 20 plant in Palmdale, was symbolically turned on by Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, Palmdale Mayor Pro Tem Tom Lackey, Palmdale Water District (PWD) Board President Gordon Dexter and Director Kathy MacLaren and Sanitation District Chief Engineer and General Manager Grace Chan.
“Today, the first use this recycled water is being used to irrigate McAdam Park, freeing up about 20 million gallons of drinkable water each year,” said Ledford. “When the system is complete within the city, it will save over 700 million gallons of potable water a year. This is a great example of collaboration and cooperation – something that our community can be very proud of.”
“This project frees up potable water for future business and home development,” said Mayor Pro Tem Tom Lackey. “When this water is fully integrated, it will help us irrigate our nearly $500 million dollar investment in our beautiful parks.”
Palmdale Public Works Director Mike Mischel thanked the Palmdale City Council and PWD board of directors for their vision, and staff members from both agencies for making the project a reality.
“We spent about $2.2 million to date on the project,” said Mischel. “Our future plans for the recycled water pipeline include taking it down Avenue R to Domenic Massari and eventually taking the pipe across city to the south and east to the Littlerock Wash. There will also be opportunities for other entities to utilize this recycled water, such as our schools, and we will be saving even more potable water.”
PWD Board Director Kathy MacLaren also praised the collaborative efforts of the public agencies. “The PWD is excited about the collaboration with the City to provide highly treated recycled water to the community. Parks, schools and other large landscaped areas will eventually use up to 1/5 or 20 percent of available recycled water. The remaining 80% of the recycled water supply will be used safely to add to our community’s water resources, providing it for farming uses and blending with other water supplies to expand them. It illustrates the future potential of our collaboration and its importance to the community now and in the future,” MacLaren said.
Sanitation District Chief Engineer and General Manager Grace Chan noted the positive environmental impacts of the project. “Because it reduces the need to import water, this project alone will save 98 barrels of oil and over 135 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year.”
The Palmdale Recycled Water Authority is a partnership between the City of Palmdale and the Palmdale Water District to serve as purveyors of the tertiary treated water that is being produced by the new treatment plant under the management of Sanitation District 20.
(Information via press release from the city of Palmdale.)
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Tisa Hats says
Interesting article. It is extremely unfortunate that over the last ten years, the travel industry has already been able to to take on terrorism, SARS, tsunamis, bird flu virus, swine flu, as well as the first ever true global economic downturn. Through all of it the industry has really proven to be sturdy, resilient and dynamic, acquiring new ways to deal with hardship. There are always fresh challenges and the possiblility to which the sector must just as before adapt and answer.
Allen Pangan says
This project has so much potential benefits to the community, I’m excited to see how this project will be engineered to achieve its full potential. It will be an honor to offer my services to COP and PWD both.
Nikolas says
Happy to see Palmdale doing this.
All of us, governments included, need to do what we can to use less potable water. From removing or reducing our lawns, watering less, planting drought-tolerant plants in our gardens, etc.
Water is not an unlimited resource that we can simply waste whenever we feel like it.
I honestly believe the price of water is much too low as well. Jack the rates up and people will immediately begin using less of it.
Hello says
Wow, I’m glad Palmdale finally caught up. Lancaster has been doing this for decades.
John Mlynar says
@Hello: That is great! I know Apollo Park uses recycled water. I was not aware that it was being used in the Lancaster City parks. That means the AV is almost totally immersed in this great product. Kudos!
Mayor Ledford says
Kathy Maclaren is the new President of the Palmdale Water District. She also had good comments made toward the collaboration between the Water District and the City.