The days of free construction water are over.
Manteca municipal crews have started installing meters on all new construction before water is allowed to be used. In the past, buildings could be hooked up to the system for water use during construction without someone actually paying for water use in many cases until the building was occupied.
It is part of an ongoing city effort to recover costs as well as to provide “equitable accountability” for water use.
The policy requiring the metering of all water during construction went into effect on Oct. 15.
In the past only large uses of water for grading work and dust control from fire hydrants was metered.
This past summer, the city made treated wastewater available for construction water trucks that fill up at purple hydrants at the wastewater treatment plant site. As an incentive to get contactors to use the purple water and not expensive treated drinking water, the recycled water is being offered at no charge.
Every time a typical water truck used for construction projects fills up from a municipal fire hydrant it is using enough water to supply the needs of an average Manteca household for 10 days.
It can also reduce construction costs as water taken from fire hydrants is metered with the developer paying the costs.
Other steps to reduce use of expensive treated water in recent years include converting parks over to shallow wells and disconnecting from the municipal system. The higher water tables they tap into consist of non-potable water. At the same time, by disconnecting parks from the system it increases nearby water pressure for residents.
Manteca already has two segments of purple pipe in the ground. One is the roughly four-mile Eckert’s line that has been used for three seasons to transport agricultural waste water to a pond at the treatment plant where it is then applied to crops that thrive using the nitrate laden water. In the future should Eckert’s no longer need the line, it could be reversed to carry treated water to water various parks located near the line.
The other is a line that goes down to Daniels Street from the treatment plant. It is designed to serve both the Big League Dreams sports complex as well as the Stadium Retail Center landscaping. Currently a shallow well at BLD is providing water for the baseball fields and landscaping.
Before Manteca can switch BLD over to treated wastewater they need to build a storage tank. They also need to secure state approval to use treated wastewater for landscaping.
Manteca municipal crews have started installing meters on all new construction before water is allowed to be used. In the past, buildings could be hooked up to the system for water use during construction without someone actually paying for water use in many cases until the building was occupied.
It is part of an ongoing city effort to recover costs as well as to provide “equitable accountability” for water use.
The policy requiring the metering of all water during construction went into effect on Oct. 15.
In the past only large uses of water for grading work and dust control from fire hydrants was metered.
This past summer, the city made treated wastewater available for construction water trucks that fill up at purple hydrants at the wastewater treatment plant site. As an incentive to get contactors to use the purple water and not expensive treated drinking water, the recycled water is being offered at no charge.
Every time a typical water truck used for construction projects fills up from a municipal fire hydrant it is using enough water to supply the needs of an average Manteca household for 10 days.
It can also reduce construction costs as water taken from fire hydrants is metered with the developer paying the costs.
Other steps to reduce use of expensive treated water in recent years include converting parks over to shallow wells and disconnecting from the municipal system. The higher water tables they tap into consist of non-potable water. At the same time, by disconnecting parks from the system it increases nearby water pressure for residents.
Manteca already has two segments of purple pipe in the ground. One is the roughly four-mile Eckert’s line that has been used for three seasons to transport agricultural waste water to a pond at the treatment plant where it is then applied to crops that thrive using the nitrate laden water. In the future should Eckert’s no longer need the line, it could be reversed to carry treated water to water various parks located near the line.
The other is a line that goes down to Daniels Street from the treatment plant. It is designed to serve both the Big League Dreams sports complex as well as the Stadium Retail Center landscaping. Currently a shallow well at BLD is providing water for the baseball fields and landscaping.
Before Manteca can switch BLD over to treated wastewater they need to build a storage tank. They also need to secure state approval to use treated wastewater for landscaping.
