The hot days of summer are upon us and Ironhouse Sanitary District (ISD) is seeing a slight increase in new users at the Residential Recycled Water Fill Station. The District is hoping that increasing the number of days open, will encourage new users to try out the service and be a helpful solution to reducing the use of potable water to irrigate lawns, vegetable gardens and trees.
The new days and hours will be Wednesdays 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Fridays 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon. This service is available free of charge to Oakley and Bethel Island residents; however, residents who live outside the ISD service area can also get ISD’s recycled water by purchasing a $25 punch card which allows for 25 trips of up to 300 gallons per trip of recycled water.
“We changed the hours the fill station is open this season to provide flexibility for our recycled water users,” said Tyson Zimmerman, ISD’s assistant general manager.
For those who have not taken advantage of using recycled water for irrigation it doesn’t take much to get started. ISD’s recycled water is safe for nearly all of your outside watering needs including vegetable gardens, fruit trees and even washing cars.
Many people believe that a 300-gallon tank, seen on the back of many local pick-up trucks over the past few years, is necessary to get recycled water. However, many different types of containers can be used to bring recycled water home from ISD’s Recycled Water Fill Station.
ISD allows users to bring home anywhere from one gallon to 300 gallons a trip and make as many trips as they’d like during fill station open hours.
New sign-ups are taken at the fill station each open day. ISD asks residents to bring a driver’s license with their current address on it to the fill station to sign up. There is a quick training session for new enrollees before using recycled water.
Recycled water should never be used to drink or prepare food. It can be used to water your trees, gardens, lawns, wash cars, paths and various other watering needs. All plants can be watered with recycled water. This includes edible plants such as fruit trees, vegetables and herbs gardens. All fruits, vegetables and herbs, however should be washed with potable water before eating.
It is also important that residents do not use recycled water for cooking or use in the kitchen, as well as not use for bathing or showering, filling swimming pools or spas, or to clean or fill up children’s water toys.
ISD’s Residential Recycled Water Fill Station is located at 450 Walnut Meadows Drive. Cross streets are Rose Avenue, Main Street and Districts Way. For more information on container types, see ISD’s website at www.ironhousesanitarydistrict.com.