March 2, 2002
Recycled Water Coming
Project will protect Lake Merced and Westside Aquifer
by Matthew Verrinder
DALY CITY -- Almost six years after talks began, parties with the capability of protecting the Westside Aquifer and Lake Merced signed a contract to do exactly that.
Daly City, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and three local golf clubs reached an agreement Monday night, spelling out how the golf clubs, for the first time, will be sold recycled water to irrigate their fairways and greens.
The hope is that once a $6 million recycled water facility at Lake Merced is built in January 2004, the golf clubs will don the aquifer by up to 10 percent, according to Patrick Sweetland, Daly City's director of Water and Wastewater.
Currently, the golf clubs pump and deplete the Westside Aquifer, which stretches from Golden Gate Park to San Bruno, and provides Daly City with 43 percent of its drinking water.
If more water is pumped out of the aquifer than is replenished, the water source risks becoming contaminated with salt water just three miles away in the ocean.
And Lake Merced, which sits right above the aquifer and has suffered from its constant pumping, will be replenished as a result of the recycled water program, Sweetland said.
Lake Merced Task Force member Dick Allen, one of many who has been critical of local water management, said Tuesday that the signing of the contract "is great news."
"[Lake Merced] is going to take a long time to recover, but at least now it's not going to continue to deteriorate like it has for the last 15 years," Allen said.
The 50-year water recycling contract is timely for Daly City, and was a must if the state was going to release $1.5 million in grant funding to help pay for $6 million recycled water facility.
The SFPUC will pay $1 million toward the facility's construction and Daly City will pay the remaining $3.5 million, according to City Manager John Martin.
The new facility will be built at city's existing wastewater treatment plant on Lake Merced Boulevard.
The three golf clubs will pay 50 cents per unit of water, or 100 cubic feet, and use about 2.6 million gallons per day, Martin said.
Governing boards for the three golf clubs still have to approve the contract, as does the SFPUC and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
The contract comes exactly four months after an Oct. 25 landmark agreement, in which Daly City, San Francisco and golf club officials announced a three-fold plan to address water problems at the Westside Aquifer and Lake Merced.
The other two elements of that agreement -- a program to divert storm water into Lake Merced and a joint water consumption plan for Daly City and San Francisco -- have also been put in action recently.
On Monday night, as part of the joint water consumption schedule, Daly City agreed to buy more water from San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy during times of drought to decrease reliance on the aquifer, Sweetland said.
Now Daly City will pay 35 cents per unit in the joint program, compared to 88 cents per unit in its regular contract with San Francisco.
Matthew Verrinder can be reached via e-mail at mverrinder@smindependent.com or at 652-6739.
