Water officials hold tour of water reclamation plant

At a time when so many historic efforts with respect to water continue to unfold in the Santa Clarita Valley, officials with the local sanitation district are inviting the SCV public to take part in a tour of the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant.

The SCV Sanitation District water treatment plant on The Old Road, near Six Flags Magic Mountain, is the source of recycled water earmarked to water green spaces at many schools, parks and businesses in the next couple of years.

“The (district) is committed to providing recycled water to support the Valley,” Basil Hewitt, district spokesman told The Signal Thursday.

“Today, recycled water irrigates the Valencia Tournament Players Club’s golf course and greenbelts in the area,” he said. “We are working with local agencies to support additional recycled water projects.”

Water conservation efforts ramped up considerably during the recent four-year drought.

By 2020, water officials hope an estimated 22,744 acre-feet of water will be recycled in and around Santa Clarita, watering our parks, school yards, wilderness tracts along our paseos and, of course, on more golf courses.

Later officials are expected to run purple pipe — the unofficial color of recycled water pipelines — along a couple of divergent routes from the water treatment plant on The Old Road.

One route — called the Central Park Recycled Water Main Extension — is expected to run along Rye Canyon Road, then Newhall Ranch Road to Bouquet Canyon Road to Central Park.

Another recently approved plan — called Recycled Water South End Project — promises to bring recycled water to College of the Canyons, the California Institute of the Arts, Placerita Junior High School, Hart High School and Newhall Elementary School.

The tour of the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant gets underway at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant, 28185 The Old Road.