The City of Poway is revising its current practice of draining substandard drinking water from its Sagewood Drive reservoir. The changes are designed to conserve water.
In the past, Poway has emptied 200,000 - 600,000 gallons of water from the Sagewood Drive reservoir up to four times a year into the stormwater system.
That's enough for about a year's supply for ten homes.
Dumping the water down the storm drain system was necessary because water in the tank degraded to levels that were no longer suitable for drinking.
"This particular reservoir though is typically reserved for use for fighting fires," says Leah Browder, Poway's Director of Public Works. "However during periods of high demand it can be pulled into the residential or the potable water system so it has to meet water quality standards."
She says that's why the city is planning to retrofit the 1.5-million-gallon capacity reservoir.
Browder says the retrofit will maintain the water quality and allow the city to keep more of the water in the reservoir.
The retrofit project is expected to be completed by October.
