Burbank taps public pool to reuse water

At the end of the summer swim season, Burbank’s Public Works Department empties the McCambridge Pool for winter to allow for maintenance work and painting, but that no longer means dumping the water down the storm drain.

Last year, in the midst of an ongoing statewide drought, the department began what is expected to be an annual practice of reusing the pool’s dechlorinated water to water park lawns and trees, clean city sewers and to control dust at the city’s landfill.

Based on the success of the practice last year, crews last week drained tens of thousands of gallons of water from the pool for similar uses again this fall. The chlorine had been allowed to break down naturally in the water before being repurposed.

Last year, the challenge was figuring out the logistics of getting the water out of the pool and putting it to use, said Bonnie Teaford, the city’s public works director, but that was not the case this year.

“This year, we said, ‘Hey let’s do it again,’” she said. “Everything ran really well.”

The pool has a capacity of around 350,000 gallons. Last year, Teaford said city workers were able to pump out about 200,000 gallons, but the pumps were not powerful enough to suck up the water in the deepest parts of the pool and that water had to be drained into the storm sewer.

That water was used to clean the city’s sewer system, fill the fountain at City Hall and keep dust down at the landfill. About 120,000 gallons were used to irrigate landscaping throughout McCambridge Park.

This year, Teaford said crews pumped the water into city trucks, mainly used for sewer cleaning and parkway watering, though she said the city did not track how much was used for each purpose this time. Preliminary estimates put the total number of reused gallons at 70,000 this year.

The large difference compared to last year was due to the type of equipment used, Teaford said. The crews did not have access to the more powerful pump used previously, and, as a result, what could not be pumped out was sent down the storm drain under a city-issued pool-discharge permit.

“It’s not like it goes to waste,” Teaford said, noting that it will benefit the “bugs and bunnies” living along the Los Angeles River, but it is “not as purposeful.”

The city will probably make it a standard practice to reuse the McCambridge Pool’s water at the end of each season, Teaford said, even after rainfalls return to normal levels.

“Water is a precious resource, drought or no drought,” she added.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland