Rightfully so, the drought has been top of mind for Californians. Hardly a day goes by without hearing and seeing something in the media or an electronic billboard on the freeways imploring us to conserve. The drought is serious and the awareness campaign surrounding water conservation is necessary but I wanted to share something positive taking place with water right here in our hometown.
Recently I toured Vallecitos Water District’s, Meadowlark Water Reclamation Facility. The facility is located on the San Marcos/Carlsbad border near the intersection of Rancho Santa Fe Rd and Melrose Ave. This facility treats and recycles waste-water. It has a total capacity of up to 8 million gallons of waste-water per day, but more importantly, it can recycle up to 5 million gallons per day.
Once treated, water is pumped up to the Mahr Reservoir located southwest of the San Elijo Hills Community. Mahr was constructed in 1981 to store reclaimed water and has a total capacity of 54 million gallons that is used for irrigation purposes.
Vallecitos’ water reclamation program promotes water re-use, reduces flows of waste-water into the ocean, and generates revenues that benefit all of Vallecitos’ customers and those are all great things.
Mike Sannella
Board, Vice President
Vallecitos Water District
