Corps of Engineers adds new pump station, pipeline in San Ramon, Calif.

By Mr. Brandon A Beach (USACE)January 20, 2010

San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Project
Chuck Ingraham, a project engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, inspects the discharge pumps at a new pump station on Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon, Calif. The facility is part of a larger 140-mile San Ramon Val... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

With California in its third year of drought, using recycled water makes a lot of sense.

That's why the San Ramon Valley Recycled Water Project couldn't be timelier.

It's a multi-phased 140-mile pipeline construction project designed by the Dublin San Ramon Services District and East Bay Municipal Utility District with several phases federally-funded and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District.

It came online partially as early as January 2006. Since that time, it now delivers up to four million gallons of recycled non-drinking water per day, most of which is used for irrigation.

And it isn't done yet.

The project is now nearing completion of 6,500 feet or one-and-a quarter miles of additional pipeline and a high-tech pump station on Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon.

One of the most challenging aspects of this particular phase of the project proved to be the area's geography. As the name suggests, Bollinger Canyon Road isn't flat.

"We had 184 feet of elevation change to deal with in tying in the new pipeline to the existing system at the top of the hill," said John Morrill, a quality control superintendent with JMR Construction Corp., the project's contractor.

San Francisco District engineers worked closely with officials at EBMUD on designing a pump station that could carry up to 2,500 gallons of water per minute at that location.

It also had to be operated remotely seven miles away from a control center in Dublin. That meant installing an antenna at the pump station capable of sending signals to a transceiver at a reservoir, in this case Knife Reservoir, which is owned by EBMUD.

This two-way talk "acts as a means of maintaining pressure in the system and maintaining levels in the reservoir," said Chuck Ingraham, a San Francisco District project engineer.

The new pump station on Bollinger Canyon Road is a relatively small piece in the project's larger puzzle, which began back in 1995 and envisions eight pump stations, five reservoirs, a water treatment facility and 140 miles of distribution pipeline carrying water from Danville to Dublin.

The next phase moves the project closer to its goals as 13 miles of additional pipeline are scheduled for construction.