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You can't drink it, but reuse water is good for the lawn |
| By Laurent
Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic reporter |
The water department of
the city of Newberg will soon offer a new product to its customers:
reuse water. The concept is simple and could save money in the long
run.
Right now the city treats about two million gallons of water
everyday before releasing it into the Willamette River. During the
summer months the quantity and temperature of that treated water
comes under the regulation of the Department of Environmental
Quality. The more water the city releases back into the river, the
closer it has to be to the temperature of river water.
The city is expected
in a few years to reach the point at which it has to cool its water
before releasing it. Instead of investing in expensive cooling
systems, Director Dan Danicic and other leaders in public works
considered what other options they had and figured that water reuse
would be “the most efficient and economical approach to deal with
waste water.”
“The water is forced under pressure through a membrane,” he said.
“This membrane is about the size of a piece of spaghetti and about
10 feet long.” There are holes in it large enough for water
molecules to pass through but not pollutants, he said to explain the
filtration process. “It almost looks like a rubber band and you get
thousands of them put in a bundle.”
Instead of pouring all the treated water into the Willamette they
figured they could divert some of it through the filtering system,
clean it so that it met DEQ standard for irrigation and then sell
it. “It postponed the need for other mechanisms to address water
temperature,” he said.
The advantage for the user is that this irrigation water “will be
less expensive to produce than drinking water.” “Current economical
analysis shows it will be about 60 percent of the cost of drinking
water,” Danicic said.
The calculation was based on a single customer. A large one, the
Chehalem Glenn golf course for example, will soon open its back nine
and will use about one million gallons of water per day in the
summer to irrigate all 18 holes. The whole city of Newberg consumes
about five to six million gallons of water per day in the summer,
making the golf club’s share 15 percent to 20 percent of the total
consumption.
The city council has already given approval for public works to buy
two 500,000-gallon-per-day capacity filters and build the facility
to house them. Danicic expects to break ground around Aug. 1;
construction should be complete nine months later. Included are the
new pipes that will be installed to provide water to the golf
course.
Additional pipes to reach other customers who would like to
irrigate with reuse water will be installed as the system grows,
Danicic said.
|
Published
June 23, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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