{"id":49163,"date":"2017-01-25T18:30:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T01:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=49163"},"modified":"2017-01-25T18:30:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T01:30:23","slug":"idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Idyllwild Water board plans to end recycled water project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
The Idyllwild Water District board meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 18, had a full complement of five directors. Show here (from left) are General Manager Jack Hoagland, directors Geoffrey Caine, Steve Kunkle, President Dr. Charles Schelly, Vic Sirkin and Peter Szabadi.\tPhoto by JP Crumrine<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe recycled water project, long a dream of the Idyllwild Water District\u2019s past boards, is being flushed down the drain. The current Board of Directors unanimously agreed to have staff begin negotiations with the state to end the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this juncture, I recommend to the board that it not move forward at this time,\u201d General Manager Jack Hoagland said at the end of his presentation on the history and feasibility of the project. \u201cCertainly now it is not financially feasible, and I don\u2019t see a way to go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, perhaps new technology and different costs might improve the project\u2019s feasibility, Hoagland added. But the current plan does not support the \u201cunique demographic, geographic and hydrologic conditions of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

After reviewing the project\u2019s plan, intent and local conditions, Hoagland described three main problems that limit its likelihood of success and impose excess costs currently.<\/p>\n

Recycling local wastewater had two goals. The first was to provide water for irrigation in lieu of customers using potable water. The second was storing it in Foster Lake to supplement the groundwater for wells in that area.<\/p>\n

However, the volume of water currently used for irrigation is not very much. Hoagland referred to a 2011 report that also questioned the amount of water needed for irrigation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of water that was identified in several scenarios is not clearly supported by data,\u201d Hoagland concluded.<\/p>\n

Regarding the goal of using the water to replenish Dutch Flats wells, Hoagland also debunked that premise, calling it \u201c\u2026 likely never credible\u2026\u201d According to Hoagland, water at Foster Lake percolates into the ground too fast. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe state wants at least six months\u2019 retention time,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the recycled water has a higher salt content, which would diminish the quality of Foster Lake water over time. To maintain the water quality, ultimately the district would need to build a desalting facility.<\/p>\n

Finally, Hoagland explained that the low estimate of demand for recycled water to be used for irrigation would substantially increase costs for which water customers would ultimately have to pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recycled water would replace about 4 percent of the water demand for which water ratepayers would have to pay a 20+ percent increase in their rates,\u201d he wrote in his report. \u201c\u2026 for a minor improvement in water supply [that] would be difficult to justify to the water ratepayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost of a new well is about $100,000, according to Hoagland. If it produced about 10 gallons per minute, that would meet or exceed the goal of the recycled water project at substantially less cost \u2014 even if one or two were dry wells.<\/p>\n

In response to a question from Director Vic Sirkin, Hoagland also said the district\u2019s cost will probably more than double to at least $2.25 million for the current estimate of less than $1 million.<\/p>\n

The current directors expressed surprise that previous boards did not share Hoagland\u2019s conclusions, especially since they seemed to have been readily available for years. Several directors wished that some former directors would step up and explain how they decided to go forward with the facility.<\/p>\n

But the board unanimously approved Hoagland\u2019s recommendation to pursue with state agencies the project\u2019s termination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recycled water project, long a dream of the Idyllwild Water District\u2019s past boards, is being flushed down the drain. The current Board of Directors unanimously agreed to have staff begin negotiations with the state to end the project. \u201cAt this juncture, I recommend to the board that it not move forward at this time,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIdyllwild Water board plans to end recycled water project • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/iwd-1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Water board plans to end recycled water project • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-26T01:30:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-26T01:30:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/aeae3367986290257fc0e23a23079bb5\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/01\/25\/idyllwild-water-board-plans-end-recycled-water-project\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/aeae3367986290257fc0e23a23079bb5\",\"name\":\"JP Crumrine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/289a47b0cbb194a66eb24aa93f19f915?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"JP Crumrine\"},\"description\":\"JP Crumrine is news editor of the Idyllwild Town Crier newspaper.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49165,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49163\/revisions\/49165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}