City Council Moves to Require Reclaimed Sewage for Watering

In a decision critical to the city’s plans to put treated waste water to use, the San Diego City Council on Monday tentatively approved an ordinance requiring that irrigation of parks, golf courses, greenbelts and crops be done with reclaimed sewage in parts of the city where the waste water is available.

The new law, which must be approved in a second council vote in two weeks, will require developers to install the dual piping necessary to bring reclaimed waste water from city mains to green areas. The requirement could add several hundred dollars to the price of new homes in some developments.

The law will also give the city the right to regulate--and perhaps ban--self-regenerating home water softeners, which pour high levels of salt into waste water, preventing cost-effective reclamation.

The ordinance is a key component of the Metropolitan Sewerage System’s plan to use as much as 120 million gallons daily of reclaimed waste water by 2010 for irrigation to free potable water for consumption and help forestall a predicted water shortage. Reclaimed water would not be consumed or used in swimming pools.

As part of a planned $2.5-billion upgrading of its secondary sewage system, the city of San Diego is expecting to build six water reclamation plants to provide treated water to areas such as Mission Valley, Otay Mesa, the Interstate 15 corridor and North City.

The city now produces a small amount of reclaimed water that Caltrans uses to irrigate freeway medians. Significant amounts of the treated water should be available by 1995.

A master plan is being devised to identify areas within the 15-city sewerage system that could feed waste water into reclamation plants. It will also pinpoint parts of the city that will receive the treated water through 330 miles of new water mains and 2,200 miles of new pipeline.