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Flush With Recycled Water
Visitors to Oakland often stop to marvel at the 22-story glass-and-steel skyscraper rapidly arising from a long-vacant lot at the corner of 12th and Jefferson Streets, watching as tall cranes sway back and forth and workers scurry along beams high overhead. Ask someone from East Bay MUD what most impresses them about the building, however, and they'll likely point to a single four-inch pipe running up the building's core. The pipe is encased in a bright purple wrapping and marked every six inches with the words "reclaimed water." Smaller connector pipes will link it to the building's hundreds of toilets and urinals, so that they can be flushed with treated wastewater, saving an estimated 20,000 gallons per day of Sierra snow melt.
The building is being constructed by the Shorenstein Company and is the first skyscraper in Northern California to be outfitted to use recycled water. It's also an important part of EBMUD's ambitious East Bayshore Recycled Water Project, which will ultimately have pipes running through Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda and Albany. The project is currently in the design phase. When completed, it will have up to 24 miles of pipeline, with deliveries expected to start in 2003. EBMUD hopes that once enough users are hooked up, it will save 2.3 million gpd, or more than 2,500 acre-feet per year. Potential users include the new Eastshore State Park, Golden Gate Fields race track, a federal building in Albany and some former military properties.
The water will come from EBMUD's main wastewater treatment plant in Oakland. EBMUD's Laura Johnson says that it will receive a third stage of treatment, which includes filtration and additional chemical disinfection, in compliance with California Department of Health Services regs. The purple pipe wrappings are also mandated by the department, and EBMUD will have to bury the pipes carrying recycled water in separate trenches at least 10 feet away from those transporting potable water.
Shorenstein's Nick Loukianoff estimates that his crews are installing 500 feet of extra pipe, plus fittings, in the building. Until the recycled water project is actually on line, the commodes will use regular, potable water, so each is being equipped with two sets of pipes. The construction costs total about $75,000, and EBMUD will reduce connection fees to cover that amount, says Johnson. "The developer is not out any money."
Johnson adds that a number of skyscrapers in Southern California use recycled water, as well as several smaller buildings here in the Bay Area, including the Marin County Jail. EBMUD has had an active water recycling program for years. Most of the water has been used for irrigation on golf courses, landscaping and the like, but EBMUD has also outfitted some of its own facilities and Richmond's Chevron Refinery, saving millions of gallons per day.
Last year, the state passed legislation that requires cities to enact regulations mandating dual plumbing systems where appropriate in large projects. Johnson says that one key to success will be for EBMUD to work closely with planning officials to identify upcoming projects that could be hooked up via the purple pipes. EBMUD has already been able to take advantage of one big construction project — the widening of the Eastshore Freeway. While Caltrans had the roadbed torn up, crews were able to install almost four and a half miles of pipe, which will soon carry recycled water.
The tec apers would be "prohibitive," because workers would have to tear into the core of the building and replumb every restrooom. Johnson says that EBMUD has no plans to equip residential buildings with dual plumbing, and it will focus on larger industrial and commercial users. These customers are more likely to have skilled professional maintenance staff who will know that the purple pipes shouldn't be connected to the drinking fountain.
But there are also plenty of opportunities. Shorenstein is planning to add three more skyscrapers to its City Center development in Oakland, and notwithstanding current economic conditions, there is always new industrial and commercial development slated for the East Bay. EBMUD says that the recycled water can be used for cooling towers and other industrial applications, as well as for outdoor landscaping of public and large private tracts, and possibly for wetland restoration efforts.
There are also several major opportunities coming down the pipeline, most notably the conversion of the Oakland Army Base and the Alameda Naval Air Station to civilian use. In both places, most of the infrastructure — roads, electrical and plumbing — is outmoded and will have to be replaced. "Everything is being redeveloped. It's a key opportunity for us to have one more line put in the street," says Johnson. "This is when it will be most economical to set up the system."
Contact: (510)835-3000
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