Due to the increase in demand for Ironhouse Sanitary District’s (ISD) recycled water, the District has increased days of operation for the Residential Recycled Water Fill Station from three days a week to six days a week.
Since opening the residential fill station in late June ISD has given away more than 1.5 million gallons of water to Oakley and Bethel Island residents. A much smaller district than others in Contra Costa County providing this service, ISD decided to start off slow to see what the needs of the community were for free recycled water.
Every day the fill station was opened more and more people signed up for the program, until lines got a little too long for comfort of ISDs staff. It took a little time for the district to build in more hours and days of service because the District decided it would be more efficient and save money on the program if they built a pipeline from the Water Recycling Facility straight to the Residential Recycled Water Fill Station.
The new line was completed on Wednesday, Sept. 2 and the hours began on Thursday, Sept. 3. Already existing customers are utilizing the new hours.
Recycled Water can be used to water lawns, trees, gardens and flowers. Some are even using the water to clean their vehicles and patios. The free service is available to Oakley and Bethel Island residents, with up to 300 gallons of water allowed per visit and no restrictions on the number of visits per day. New sign-ups are taken starting one hour after the station opens each day.
A lot of people have noticed the trucks around town carrying big tanks in the flatbeds and thinking that if they don’t have a big truck they can’t get water. That isn’t true. Even those with small cars have been coming in to get recycled water at ISD, using everything from one to five gallon buckets. For more information containers, see ISDs website at www.ISDP2.org.
The fill station is currently open Monday through Thursday from noon to 7 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
