RECYCLED WATER KEEPS GOLF COURSES GREEN.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

VALENCIA - The green expanses of the new TPC Westridge golf course and the lushly landscaped street medians nearby stay that way with recycled waste water, the first such system in the Santa Clarita Valley and one that will be expanded in 2005 and beyond.

A $62 million system to recycle treated waste water from the county sanitation districts' treatment plants in Valencia and Saugus is about 10 percent operational, with studies under way to pipe the reusable resource to other suitable areas, said Mary Lou Cotton, water resources manager for the Castaic Lake Water Agency, which oversees the region's supply.

``We're searching for our next customer,'' Cotton said. ``It's working all through Westridge on roadway medians and on the golf course.''

State water officials are pushing California's water suppliers to reuse treated waste water for landscaping to decrease reliance on Northern California's rivers.

Locally, the entire system is due to be complete in two to three years and will serve businesses and public uses, she said. The water actually is treated to drinking water standards, but is labeled nonpotable and used for only irrigation.

The federal budget for the coming fiscal year includes $250,000 for the project, money that will help complete studies and designs for the next phase - design and construction of pumping stations and pipelines.

Eventually, the recycled water will be piped as far east in Santa Clarita as Central Park in Saugus, where it will irrigate about a dozen softball and soccer fields. Pumping reusable water further east isn't economically feasible because the two treatment plants that clean waste water are to the west, Cotton said.

A draft of a master plan for the system is undergoing analysis to ensure it complies with state environmental laws. The plan calls for two pump stations, one booster station, eight holding tanks and about 55 miles of purple distribution pipeline - the distinct color is a state mandate to distinguish the pipes from drinking water lines, Cotton said.

Once complete, the system will provide 17,000 acre-feet of recycled water for irrigation uses. At present, 1,700 acre-feet - enough water to cover an acre, one foot deep - is being recycled for use in the Westridge area of Valencia.

In planning the system, CLWA officials determined that drawing up to 17,000 acre-feet from treated waste water flowing into the Santa Clara River would be the maximum to avoid affecting the water table. Fillmore and other Ventura County communities along the Santa Clara to the west rely on well water from a system largely fed by the flow from Santa Clarita.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com