Manteca Unified school campuses south of the 120 Bypass will be the first to use treated wastewater to irrigate grass fields and landscaping.
The City of Manteca’s pending infrastructure project for the family entertainment zone will extend a purple pipe to ferry recycled wastewater under the 120 Bypass. Also within the next year or so, a final segment of the gravity flow sewer line under Woodward Avenue will be put in place. That will allow the existing forced line to be cleaned out. Since it flows in the right direction to allow gravity to move water, the purple pipe will be connected to that pipe to send recycled wastewater southward.
Deputy Superintendent Clark Burke said MUSD is working with the city. Plans are to bring treated wastewater to Woodward and Veritas elementary schools and a new elementary campus that is expected to start construction within the next five years. Nile Garden School could also be connected to the purple pipe.
At some point in the future when the city’s fifth comprehensive high school is built on Tinnin Road south of Woodward Avenue it will also use recycled wastewater for irrigation.