Fallbrook Aims to Sell Treated Sewage Water

Fallbrook Sanitary District manager Ben Price on Monday outlined plans for a major water reclamation project, using treated sewage water on Interstate 5 landscaping and to irrigate crops in the Camp Pendleton area.

Price said that the sewage treatment plant could pay for the more extensive treatment by selling the water.

Under the proposal presented to the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Fallbrook district would produced treated sewage water of “drinking water standards,” Price said, and would sell it at reduced prices to agricultural producers and to the state Department of Transportation.

“When we must import 100% of our water, we can ill afford to use it once and throw it away,” Price said. He said the economics of the Fallbrook Sanitary District made it less expensive to treat the sewage effluent for reuse and to ship it to agricultural and other users along its 18.2-mile pipeline to an ocean outfall off Oceanside than to seek lower treatment standards and dispose of it in the ocean.

Potable water sells for about $360 an acre-foot in the North County area, Price said, and treated sewage water for irrigation purposes could be sold for half that price or more, providing savings to irrigators and an income for the district.

Price said Oceanside sewer and water officials have approved the I-5 irrigation plan, as have CalTrans officials. The Oceanside City Council will act on the reclamation project Aug. 14, he said.

Initially, the Fallbrook district would sell only a fraction of its 1,800 acre-feet of treated wastewater for irrigation of I-5 landscaping between Hill Street and Vista Way in Oceanside, Price said. Eventually, its sales would be expanded to include all of the wastewater output, which would be sold to tomato and strawberry farmers along the district pipeline, bringing in $300,000 to $630,000.

Price estimated that conversion to a higher-level treatment system would cost $1.5 million, to be offset by the sale of the reclaimed water.

Regional Water Quality Control Board members praised Price for his district’s effort and promised support in speeding future permit applications to accomplish the project.