On May 5, Sunset Metropolitan District held a groundbreaking ceremony at the corner of Peyton Highway and Judge Orr Road to mark the start of construction of the district’s Santa Fe Springs’ wastewater treatment and reclamation facility.When completed, the facility will provide 1,100 water and sewer taps for the Santa Fe Springs development at $10,000 per tap. The district plans to extend lines throughout the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Basin in future years, said Rodney Preisser, Sunset Metro’s general manager.The facility’s ability to reclaim water for outside use is significant, Preisser said, becausehomes account for 80 percent of water usage and 50 percent of that goes into yards. “Until you get homeowners into the mix, you can’t save huge quantities of water,” he said.Until recently, reclaimed water was only used on golf courses and some commercial landscaping, which is trivial compared to the amount of water used by homes, Preisser said.The Santa Fe Springs facility will re-circulate reclaimed wastewater back to houses for use as irrigation water through what is known as a “purple pipe” system.Purple pipe systems were approved for use in residential developments in 2005. The reclaimed water is expected to filter through the soil and recharge the underlying aquifer.Construction costs are too high to install purple pipe systems for existing houses, said Sean Chambers, project coordinator for Sunset Metro. “It makes the most sense to install purple pipe systems in new developments.”The housing slowdown has stalled housing starts over the past 18 months, but Preisser said he expects at least 30 lots to be ready for construction at Santa Fe Springs by the end of this year.In addition to the reclamation facility at Santa Fe Springs, Sunset Metro will construct 14.5 miles of a 15-inch sewer interceptor line connecting the Santa Fe Springs facility to the district’s existing wastewater treatment plant at the southern end of the UBS basin on Drennan Road.It took five years to do all the planning and get the permits, Preisser said. “It feels good to finally get started.”
