TREATED WATER ON TAP; APPROVAL PLEASES GROWERS.Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved a plan Thursday allowing Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. to sell treated wastewater, ending a decades-long battle with water agencies and area farmers who have pumped the water from Calleguas Creek. Currently, treated wastewater flows from the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant Wastewater treatment plant also called wastewater treatment works
The decision is a historic one, said Donald Kendall, general manager for the Calleguas Municipal Water District. ``This is the first time in the county that we've been able to get recognition for the uses of reclaimed water Reclaimed water, sometimes called recycled water, is former wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified for reuse, rather than discharged into a body of water. ,'' said Kendall, whose agency helped broker the agreement as the region's wholesale supplier of imported drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. . ``We're able to trade potable potable /pot·a·ble/ (po´tah-b'l) fit to drink. po·ta·ble adj. Fit to drink; drinkable. potable fit to drink. water for reclaimed water.'' Growers with fields and orchards covering some 15,000 acres on the eastern half of the Oxnard Plain The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California bounded by the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, and Oak Ridge (beyond which lies the Conejo Valley) to the east, the Topatopa Mountains to the north, the Santa Clara River Valley would be served by the project, reducing groundwater pumping and aiding a broader effort to hold back seawater seawater Water that makes up the oceans and seas. Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5% water, 2.5% salts, and small amounts of other substances. Much of the world's magnesium is recovered from seawater, as are large quantities of bromine. intruding into the aquifer. Golf courses, including one in the proposed Camarillo Springs Regional Park, and the California State University, Channel Islands California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) is a university located in Camarillo, California, in California's Ventura County. CSUCI opened in 2002 as the twenty-third campus in the California State University system, succeeding the Ventura County branch campus of campus proposed for the former Camarillo State Hospital are other potential customers. ``I think that generally we're satisfied with the approval of the application by the board,'' said John Lamb, a fifth-generation grower who manages 275 acres of lemons. The final agreement was worth the wait, Lamb said. ``It's taken a lot of years and a lot of hard work,'' he said. ``We've got something we can all work with for the foreseeable future.'' The first drops of reclaimed water will flow to the various agencies sometime in 1999, once a $9 million treatment plant improvement project is finished, said Don Nelson, Thousand Oaks' director of public works. ``Many of the components are already in place,'' Nelson said. Thursday's decision ``gives us the certainty that we have been lacking for the last 10 years.'' Once the plant is expanded, the city will be able to claim more than 17,000 acre-feet of treated wastewater annually. Of that amount, about 1,440 acre-feet would irrigate ir·ri·gate v. To wash out a cavity or wound with a fluid. city landscaping, another 1,370 acre-feet would go to Camrosa for aquifer recharge, and up to 14,344 acre-feet would go to Camrosa and the Pleasant Valley County Water District for sale to farmers. The plan means ``more water for the region in general,'' said Richard Hajas, the Camrosa general manager. ``We're talking about a lot of water,'' Nelson said, noting the project will produce an amount equal to one-third of the drinking water Thousand Oaks residents currently use annually. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land in one foot of water. It is equal to 325,872 gallons, enough to serve two families for a year. |
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