8/6/2013 11:08 AM
I have been very fortunate the past few years to being able to receive some very good reclaimed water from the plant. But, I can tell you that we have learned along the way a few things that may be able to help you out in advance of receiving any.
For instance, main #1 issue with us is locking in the price. I have seen rates go up $.06/1,000 gallons consistently over the past three years. It costs me more to use the reclaim water than to pump it out of my deep wells. Back when we were first talking about making a connection, I wish we had locked in a price for a specific period other than on a 12-month cycle. I would strive to get a 5 or even 10 year price locked in, if possible.
Second, after we started receiving it, we worked together to help us both out by communicating that increased ppm of Nitrate in the water is good for us. We are very sand soils, and that extra N helps us throughout the year. They went from going through a very costly and time consuming nitrification process to lower the Nitrate down to around 3-4 ppm, to currently leaving it at the high end of the state mandated limits, 10-12ppm. This in turn has saved them money and helped me with turf conditions. No, it's not enough for me to back off my Nitrogen inputs yet, but I feel I have seen an improvement in turf quality since making the connection. Of course, our salt levels in the water is fairly low, relatively speaking, compared to other reclaim sources in our area. I have attached a spreadsheet with some guidelines that were published from the PACE Institute.
Third, verify the required amount that will need to be taken on a daily basis. We currently have about a 5 day storage window before having to reject or dump water to a spray field. They may require you to take water when you don't need it, forcing you to either over water in-play areas, or install irrigation in out of play areas to assist with this.
If you are already required to permit and submit your water usage, verify that the use of reclaim won't hinder or count against your existing usage. Our water management district counts our reclaim water the same as withdraw from the wells, and forces us to still stay within our average daily usage, regardless of source. Does not make any sense, since if I am not using it, it's getting dumped to the spray field and wasted, but if I go over my daily average, I get warning letters in the mail.