My town of Petaluma, California has a population of 60,530
with one sewage facility located 2 miles from my house: the Ellis Creek Water
Recycling Facility. It has 9 pumping stations and contains 192 miles of
pipeline. Every year Ellis Creek cleans 2 billion gallons of wastewater and
produces 708 million gallons of recycled water. Sine 1984, Ellis Creek has used
its recycled water for golf courses, agriculture, and vineyards, all taking up large amounts of land in my town. Tertiary
recycled water is used for process water, landscape irrigation, toilet flushing
and fire protection. Ellis Creek also saves 400 million gallons of drinking
water per year though the use of recycled water, equal to the amount of water
used by 3,700 homes on an annual basis.
It would be interesting to see the percentage of water used for agriculture, vineyards, and golf courses compared to other uses of water in the county. I'm sure Sonoma County uses a huge portion of its water on vineyards. It'll be a good way to figure out how to cut back on water use in certain areas.
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