Letter: Fast track recycled water project proposed to SAM

At the July 28 meeting of the Sewer Authority MidCoastside (SAM), MWSD and GSD representatives, led by Scott Boyd, presented the basics of a new Fast Track Recycled Water Project.

The current project that is being pursued involves gathering all potential stakeholders, designing and building an extensive pipeline system, investigating the creation of an Irrigation District, and proving to many potential users that the water is safe to use in agricultural applications.
Needless to say, this could take many, many years, and, with annual warnings of potential droughts, the sooner this moves forward, the better.

Scott’s Fast Track proposal is to determine immediate willing clients, start with only half our recycled capacity, use an existing pipeline owned by the local golf course, and launch a pilot project. Several local farms could join this initial pilot by hooking up to this existing pipeline.
The benefits of this proposal are many:

1.  We actually start doing something we need to do.
2.  We can create our new marketable water product and test its contents.
3.  We can demonstrate its usability to additional clients.
4.  No significant costs are incurred for pipeline infrastructure.

The SAM Board authorized its staff to begin this investigation. The pilot project clients need to be contacted and the initial engineering designs need to be studied to determine if the full-sized project can be built in incremental stages.

We all hope this will accelerate this project and bring us additional resources to protect against future droughts.

Ric Lohman