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Rocknpalms
05-21-2007, 01:49 PM
BOOSTING LAKE ELSINORE; Recycled Sewage Water Will Help Stabilize Seesawing Level
MARY BENDER, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
LAKE ELSINORE
It starts out as sewage, something nobody wants to think about after they flush their toilet, flip on their garbage disposal, run their dishwasher or do a load of laundry.
But after being filtered through gravel, heated and disinfected with ultraviolet light, filtered through carbon, oxygenated, cleansed by coliform bacteria-chomping microorganisms that also eat the waste, and filtered some more - not necessarily in that order - this formerly putrid wastewater emerges as its new, improved, reinvented self: suitable to spray from sprinklers at golf courses, athletic fields, freeway landscaping, and even to irrigate agricultural crops.
And, starting next month, recycled water processed by the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District will serve another important role in town: to help refill a lake with a long history of fluctuating water levels. Some years it has been bone dry, while other years it overflows its banks, the changing depth a result of drought, floods and evaporation.
The water district is building a pipeline that will carry about 4.5 million gallons of recycled water per day from its Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on Chaney Street to the lake, about a mile away. The pipeline will be buried along a bank of Temescal Wash - on maps, also called Alberhill Creek - which empties into the northern edge of the lake.
The pipeline's $4.5 million construction cost is being paid for with state water bond funds, said Greg Morrison, director of legislative and community affairs for the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
The recycled water should start flowing into the lake by early June, Morrison said. The wash connects to the lake near Swick & Matich Park and the boat launch.
The objective of the recycled water pipeline is to stabilize the lake's water level, which is measured by its elevation above sea level. The lake loses about 41/2-feet of depth per year due to evaporation, a situation that the infusion of recycled water can partially offset.
"We need every drop of available water to maintain the water quality of the lake, by (keeping) the lake above a minimum elevation of 1,240 feet above sea level," said Pat Kilroy, the city's director of lake and aquatic resources. "There is no other practical source of available water for an arid region like Southern California."
For those squeamish about the prospect of extensively treated sewage being discharged into a recreational lake on which people fish, sail and water ski, Kilroy offers an analogy:
Rainfall, sprinkler runoff and other sources of water trickle through gutters into storm drains, ultimately emptying into the creeks and flood-control channels that flow - unfiltered and untreated - into lakes, rivers and oceans. Recycled water, on the other hand, must be purified to meet stringent state health standards.
"This water is much lower in bacteria levels than storm water that comes off the streets," Kilroy said.
Added city spokesman Mark Dennis: "The risk of going into a swimming pool in somebody's backyard is greater than going into a lake filled with recycled water."
Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District's treatment plant will go one step further: it will remove phosphorous from the recycled water. The lake is susceptible to overgrowth of algae that harms water quality, and algae feed on phosphorous, Morrison said.
On the southwestern bank of Temescal Wash, just east of Chaney Street, large iron pipes have been stacked side by side, waiting to be connected and installed in a trench that crews will dig to run parallel to the creek. Each section of 3-foot-diameter pipe is 181/2-feet long.
Regulations require that the recycled water be transported to the lake in its own pipeline, rather than having the plant discharge it directly into Temescal Wash, Morrison said. That's why the pipeline will run alongside the creek, rather than within its banks.
And in a year that may go down as the driest on record in Southern California, with a rainfall total stalled at a paltry 3inches, the addition of recycled water into the lake is coming at a good time.
"Even under normal conditions, Lake Elsinore is short on water," Kilroy said. "So during the dry years, we certainly need a supplemental source of water to maintain the lake level. Water level and water quality go hand in hand."
The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District serves a 96-square-mile area that stretches from Temescal Valley to Murrieta and includes Lake Elsinore. Formed in 1950, the district provides water service, sewer service or both to 36,000 households and businesses.
* * *
HISTORY
EMPTY: The lake was bone dry in 1954 as a result of drought; it began to refill when the rains returned in 1958. It was most recently dry again in the late 1960s.
OVERFLOWING: The lake ran over its banks and flooded surrounding areas in 1980 and 1983.
WHERE DID IT GO? The lake loses an average of 4 1/2 feet every year to evaporation.
SOURCES: EASTERN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT, LAKE ELSINORE MANAGEMENT
AUTHORITY

HPLavey
05-21-2007, 01:51 PM
Does that mean they'll be stocking it with brown trout?

RiverToysJas
05-21-2007, 01:52 PM
Same with Lake Mead I think. There was a thread about it a couple years ago...
RTJas :D

BrendellaJet
05-21-2007, 01:57 PM
This is good news. I haven't swam in that lake in 15 years, but Ill put my boat in it any day.Maybe the lke lice will get word of this and decide not to go...same with the wake boarders....

Rocknpalms
05-21-2007, 01:57 PM
Does that mean they'll be stocking it with brown trout?
LOL "Brown Trout" was the name of my Brown w/ Apricot metal flake 74 Tahiti.

Old Texan
05-21-2007, 01:58 PM
This is an increasing practice throughout the country. Lake Sidney Lanier north of Atlanta just completed a similar plant and pipeline. Recycled wate will be put into the lake from below.
Lots of concerns with water clarity and the effect on algae growth from what I read.

MKEELINE
05-21-2007, 01:59 PM
That sound kinda shitty.

Baja Big Dog
05-21-2007, 02:48 PM
Ive done a lot work with a lot of water agencies on industrial control projects, and I would swim in the lake filled with recycled water before I would drink from the tap in a lot of cities....:eek:

dmontzsta
05-21-2007, 02:57 PM
It cannot make the water any worse. :)

BADBLOWN572
05-21-2007, 02:58 PM
Ive done a lot work with a lot of water agencies on industrial control projects, and I would swim in the lake filled with recycled water before I would drink from the tap in a lot of cities....:eek:
Agreed 100%. I have worked on various construction projects at many of the treatment plants throughout So. Cal and it is amazing the amount of filtering that goes on at these facilities. Definitely state of the art and the water is monitored every step of the filtering process. By the time it comes out, it is probably better than tap water from a lot of cities. :eek:

Ziggy
05-21-2007, 02:59 PM
Makes sense to me.............Now the term Green Lake will have two meanings:D:D
Perris is the polluted lake.......... :p:

mrs.rvrluvr
05-21-2007, 03:02 PM
I thought it was already full of sewage water.

RitcheyRch
05-21-2007, 03:42 PM
Exactly what I was thinking.
It cannot make the water any worse. :)

Sleek-Jet
05-21-2007, 04:22 PM
Ive done a lot work with a lot of water agencies on industrial control projects, and I would swim in the lake filled with recycled water before I would drink from the tap in a lot of cities....:eek:
Agreed 100%. I have worked on various construction projects at many of the treatment plants throughout So. Cal and it is amazing the amount of filtering that goes on at these facilities. Definitely state of the art and the water is monitored every step of the filtering process. By the time it comes out, it is probably better than tap water from a lot of cities. :eek:
I agree... though there are more than a few people on here who do not share the same view... :rolleyes:

OCMerrill
05-21-2007, 04:37 PM
well I agree that it can't possibly make it worse.

riverroyal
05-21-2007, 04:51 PM
its been happeneing for years already.YES it will clean up the water even though it sounds wrong.Its a great deal for that crappy lake

catman-do
05-21-2007, 05:32 PM
If you have ever been on a cruise ship, then you shouldnt mind swimming in that water. Most cruise ships used reclaimed waste water that was filtered.

BADAXE
05-21-2007, 06:52 PM
Same with Lake Mead I think. There was a thread about it a couple years ago...
RTJas :D
We all know where the water in Lake Mead goes.:D