Plan to Add Treated Effluent to Ground Water Under Study

A plan to use treated sewage water to replenish ground-water supplies is being considered by San Gabriel Valley water agencies.

Robert Berlien, general manager of the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, said the district is considering selling $3.7 million in bonds. The bonds would finance construction of a 4.5-mile pipeline from the county Sanitation Districts’ sewage treatment plant at Whittier Narrows to an area along the San Gabriel River in El Monte where reclaimed water would be allowed to soak into the ground.

The cost for the reclaimed water would be $115 to $120 an acre-foot, which would include financing the bonds over a 20-year period, Berlien said. The agencies now pay $153 an acre-foot for water that is imported from the Colorado River and Northern California and put into the ground to bolster water supplies.

Berlien said the next step in the project will be to ask the area’s watermaster board, which oversees ground-water replenishment, to agree to buy 7,500 acre feet of reclaimed sewage water every year. The commitment is needed to make the project financially feasible, Berlien said.

The project also would require an environmental impact study and approval from the state Department of Health Services and the Regional Water Quality Control Board.