Grant funding aids water district with projects
By Karen Brainard
By receiving grant funding, Ramona Municipal Water District hopes to implement a project at the San Vicente wastewater treatment plant that would increase the amount of recycled water produced and decrease the cost of brine hauling.
Brine is the reject water produced after recycled water goes through the reverse osmosis treatment at the San Vicente plant. The treatment meets salt restrictions associated with the Gower Groundwater Basin Plan. Because the brine contains concentrated salts that make disposal difficult, especially since the district has no direct access to an ocean outfall system, it is hauled down the hill to water reclamation plants. The budgeted amount for brine hauling this fiscal year is $380,000.
Through the Metropolitan Water District’s Foundational Actions Funding program for studies or pilot projects related to recycled water, RMWD applied for a $75,000 grant and recently learned it will receive the award. The water board gave its approval Nov. 12 for General Manager David Barnum to negotiate, review and approve the final funding contract for the grant.
The project would add a third reverse osmosis system and is estimated to cost $200,000, including the $75,000 grant. According to the district, the project could save a third of the brine hauling cost or about $100,000 a year, and an upgraded system could eliminate the need for an additional brine pond at the plant.
“I think this is a great project. Knowing what we know now, I think even if we didn’t get the grant money, we’d do it,” said Barnum.
The board also adopted its Salt and Nutrient Management plan, required by the state, at its Nov. 12 meeting. The plan, prepared by Todd Engineers of Alameda, cost $88,000 but $40,000 of that will be covered by a grant through the San Diego County Water Authority. Director Kit Kesinger was absent from the meeting.
The board, which normally meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, will not be meeting again in November. The next meeting will be Dec. 10 at 2 p.m., Ramona Community Center.