Recycled Water in Use

Recycled Water in Use

Recycled water is in use in the Otay Water District’s Chula Vista service area. Recycled water is wastewater that has been re-purified and is being reused.

The governor of California has directed the State Water Resources Control Board to prohibit the irrigation of ornamental turf on public street medians using potable water. This prohibition does not apply to recycled water. Rather, the state encourages the use of recycled water and has prohibited landscape and roadside irrigation using potable water wherever recycled water is available.

As a result, landscapes irrigated using drought-proof recycled water including parks, golf courses, open space, and freeway landscaping are exempt from statewide irrigation restrictions. 

As the state struggles with record drought, reusing wastewater is a cost-effective way to create a reliable supply of water for the region, and it is proving to be a drought-proof source of new water.

Every day, the Otay Water District converts up to 1.3 million gallons of residential and commercial sewage into high quality recycled water at its Ralph W. Chapman Water Recycling Facility. The District also purchases up to 6 million gallons per day from the City of San Diego’s South Bay Water Reclamation Plant.

Since the mid 1980s, recycled water has been in use in Otay Water District’s east Chula Vista service area where it is used to irrigate parks, golf courses, open space, common areas, and roadway landscaping, and to compact soil and suppress dust at construction sites in Chula Vista.

In the 1990s, Otay Water District and the City of Chula Vista began requiring dual piping in all new developments. One set of pipes supplies drinking water for human use and consumption, while a second set delivers recycled water for landscape irrigation. You will know when recycled water is in use because all pipes, sprinklers, meters or valves designed to carry recycled water are required to be purple in color or distinctively wrapped with purple tape.

Every time you see the purple pipe, know that they are helping the communities served by the Otay Water District meet the challenges of the statewide drought.