Study to focus on use of effluent water

From your bathroom to your favorite golf course or city park.

It's part of a creative solution to a lingering problem in Utah, one of the most arid states in the country — how to preserve precious culinary water, much of which ends up on lawns and in gutters.

"Why take that drinking water and go spray it on your lawn?" asks West Jordan utilities manager Roger Payne.

West Jordan, along with Midvale, South Jordan, Sandy, Riverton, Draper, Herriman, Bluffdale and Salt Lake County, are about to embark on a study that will determine whether it's feasible to use up to 28 million gallons of effluent a day on golf courses and parks. That's usable treated wastewater currently ending up in the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake.

The idea is to treat that wastewater to the point where it can be used for irrigation. It'd be considered secondary water, good enough for a lawn but not for human consumption. Effluent as irrigation water is already flowing in a few Utah locales, such as Overlake's golf course in Tooele and on one golf course in South Salt Lake.

Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility has been studying whether it could tap into 55 million gallons of treated wastewater a day now draining into the Jordan River. The water would be used to keep parks and golf courses green for customers in the Granger Hunter, Cottonwood, Taylorsville-Bennion and Kearns improvement districts, South Salt Lake, Murray and Salt Lake City Suburban District One.

Now, eight cities in the south end of the Salt Lake valley and Salt Lake County are eyeing the South Valley Water Reclamation Facility in a similar study set to begin soon. Their aim is to tap into South Valley's 28 million gallons of wastewater being dumped into the Jordan River every day.

"It could all go toward reuse, and it really should," said general manager Duane Goodyear. It costs roughly $6 million a year to clean up the wastewater enough so that it is suitable for reintroduction into the environment. "It's a crime to spend all those funds . . . and nobody ever gets any use out of it."

Riverton officials actually rallied the troops and with the other eight entities will pitch in toward a $40,000 feasibility study. Riverton has a newer secondary water system, but city administrator Mark Cram says they're looking for another potential conservation source with South Valley's water.

"We're the second-most arid state in the country and we should utilize every available resource that we can."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com