GLENDALE : Reclaimed Water Line Will Be Installed

Groundbreaking is scheduled today on a project to install a 1,600-foot-long, 24-inch-wide reclaimed water pipeline under the Scholl Canyon Golf Course, which is built on a former landfill site.

Both the water pipe and a pipe meant to carry methane gas produced by decomposition at the former landfill will be installed by ARB Inc. in a process that is expected to take about a month.

The nine-hole course was shut down in 1989 because leaking gas from the decomposition of trash reached hazardous levels. City officials have since resolved the problem by covering the old landfill with more dirt, installing a pipe system to collect methane and using the gas to generate power to produce electricity.

Meanwhile, a new 18-hole course is being developed on the site. The $3.6-million course will cover 56 acres of the 410-acre former landfill.

Don Froelich, the city’s water services administrator, said the pipeline will stretch across the natural canyon portion of the golf course, not the landfill.

“It will not be in the green area,” he said. “It will be in a slope area” of the canyon.

Once the pipeline is in place, it will be connected to the course’s sprinkler system, said Michael Hopkins, public service director. The southern stretch would hook up with a two-mile pipeline that currently serves Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale.

The northern end would hook up with a pipe serving Pasadena. The water would come from the Los Angeles-Glendale Water Reclamation Plant near the Los Angeles River, south of Colorado Street.