Water agency to hire consultants for new project
Officials plan recycled water plant
Water officials are expected to hire consultants to design plans to bring water to Vista Canyon residential development in Canyon Country.
The Water Factory being planned is a recycled water plant, which is an integral part of the development’s conservation strategy.
Vista Canyon, which is being proposed by Valenciabased JSB Development Inc., is a mixed-use housing project that calls for more than 1,000 homes to be built and almost a 1 million square feet of commercial space on 185 acres across the Santa Clara River from Canyon Country Park. It would be located between Sand Canyon and Lost Canyon roads.
The Engineering Committee for the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency recently voted in favor of hiring consultants Woodward & Curran to design the factory’s
pipelines and voted to have Kennedy/Jenks Consultants design its storage tank.
The committee’s recommendation is expected to be endorsed by the SCV Water Agency’s board April 3— since it meets the objectives spelled out in its Recycled Water Master Plan, which calls for expanding “the existing recycled water system in the SCV to offset potable water demands.”
Simply put, SCV Water can conserve its drinking water supply by using recycled water for lawns.
The first phase of its recycled water plan involves developing pipelines in Valencia, while the second phase involves bringing recycled water to the rest of the SCV.
Once completed, Vista Canyon would provide recycled water to the east side of SCV.
Surplus water
This will be accomplished by using surplus recycled water provided by Vista Canyon’s water treatment plant—referred to as the Water Factory.
Pipelines conveying the recycled water are expected to go from Vista Canyon “to the Fair Oaks area,” SCV Water spokeswoman Kathie Martin told The Signal on Tuesday.
The pipeline would align itself along city streets, residential neighborhoods and a bridge crossing over the Metrolink Railroad.
It promises to generate about 415 acre-feet of recycled water each year. (An acre-foot of water is a volume area the size of a football field under one foot of water.)
About 137 acre-feet of water is expected to be used by the people in Vista Canyon over the course of one year. The surplus water, about 278 acre-feet a year, is earmarked for use by the residents of the Fair Oaks community.
Construction
Construction of Vista Canyon itself, meanwhile, is in full swing.
“Construction work of the facility is progressing well, and vertical work has begun,” Carrie Lujan, city of Santa Clarita spokeswoman, told The Signal Tuesday.
“Construction of subsurface concrete tanks is complete and formwork for the office building and the mechanical room is underway,” she said. “Target completion date of the facility is Oct. 1, 2018.”
Vista Canyon’s Water Factory is Santa Clarita’s first large-scale water recycling project.
Once it’s built, the city will own and operate the plant and use recycled water to irrigate landscaping in the area.
If all goes according to plan, water officials hope the Vista Canyon Water Factory will become the template for other waterrecycling plants across the SCV, using recycled water to irrigate public areas such as parks and street medians.
Its “water factory” would receive about 80 percent of the water leaving homes in Vista Canyon—from toilets to bathtub and kitchen sink drains.
The other 20 percent— solid wastes from the same sources—would go to the Saugus Water Reclamation Plant for treatment.
The 80 percent would be treated at the “water factory” for the sole purpose of irrigating public areas such as parks. Planners emphasized the recycled water would not be for human consumption.