Recycled water got a big boost last month in San Ramon, CA, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District completed construction of a new pump station just off Bollinger Canyon Road. The station was officially handed over to the two project sponsors, Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) and East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), to begin operating in the area. SPN engineers worked closely with officials from DSRSD and EBMUD to design a pump station that could carry up to 2,500 gallons of water per minute. Additionally, 6,500 feet of pipeline was installed.

“The pump station and pipeline are critical components of the San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Project. The completion of the pump station and pipeline not only provides redundancy in the transmission system, but it also allows EBMUD to immediately connect customer sites that are part of the initial phase of the project,” said Florence Wedington, an associate civil engineer and EBMUD’s SRVRWP program manager. “The partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided the necessary funding to allow EBMUD to move forward with construction of the project.” One of the most challenging aspects of the project proved to be the area’s geography. As the name suggests, Bollinger Canyon Road is not flat.

“We had 184 feet of elevation change to deal with in tying in the new pipeline to the existing system at the top of the hill,” said John Morrill, a quality control superintendent with JMR Construction Corp., the project’s contractor. The new station also needed to be operated remotely seven miles away from a control center in Pleasanton. That meant installing an antenna at the pump station capable of sending signals to a transceiver at an EBMUD-owned reservoir, with the signals relayed to the recycled water treatment facility in Pleasanton. This two-way talk will act as a means of maintaining pressure in the system and proper levels at the recycled water reservoir.

The new pump station is one piece of the larger San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Project (SRVRWP), which began in 1995 and envisions eight pump stations, five reservoirs, a water treatment facility and more than 100 miles of distribution pipeline carrying water from Pleasanton to Danville.

The initial phase of this multi-phase project came online partially in February 2006. The project currently delivers more than four million gallons of recycled non-potable water per day, which is used for irrigation. By the end of 2009, the SRVRWP was serving more than 200 customer sites in Dublin and San Ramon, including parks, golf courses, greenbelts and roadways.

The San Francisco District’s portion of the project includes the construction of the pump station off Bollinger Canyon Road and 8-14 miles of pipeline. Additional work to construct pipeline is currently underway in the cities of Danville, Blackhawk and San Ramon. These projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2011.