OAK PARK : Golf Course to Use Reclaimed Water

The well-manicured lawns of the North Ranch Golf Course will soon be watered with reclaimed sewer water washed and flushed into treatment plants by Oak Park residents.

During a 10 a.m. ceremony Tuesday, golf course and water officials will turn on the spigot, tapping into a $5-million system that pipes effluent between Oak Park residents and a Malibu treatment plant.

The 775 acre-feet of reclaimed water used on the golf course each year is expected to free up enough potable water for 1,500 families.

“It will help ensure that we don’t ever have water rationing in Ventura County again,” said Don Kendall, general manager of Calleguas Municipal Water District. “It’s a key element of good water resource management. We can’t forget the fact that we live in a desert.”

Kendall was referring to water rationing in the county and the rest of California during the 1987-1992 drought. The water district now requires that golf courses use reclaimed water when available.

In addition to the golf course, other reclaimed water users include the city of Thousand Oaks and an Oak Park water company.

Those entities use water on medians and other public outdoor areas.

The reclaimed-water users will pay for the project over time through their water rates, Kendall said. Those rates and the reclaimed system are separate from potable water rates and pipelines, he said.

As an additional benefit, the Metropolitan Water District, which provides water to Calleguas, has promised to guarantee an acre-foot of potable water during emergency times for every acre-foot of reclaimed water used during plentiful times.

“It’s a huge benefit,” Kendall said.