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PEBBLE BEACH’S 100 million-gallon bathtub, the 22-acre Forest Lake Reservoir, is now quenching the thirst of the community’s famous golf courses with recycled wastewater after a massive rehabilitation effort more than a decade in the making.

The $12.5 million Wastewater Reclamation Project allows reclaimed water to be stored during the winter months, when the demand is lowest, so it can be used to irrigate the golf courses and athletic fields in summer, when demand for water is at its peak.

“It’s been in the planning and development stage for many years, so it is very gratifying to see where we are today,” said Richard Andrews, general manager of the Pebble Beach Community Services District.

Feeding water from the reservoir to Pebble Beach’s seven golf courses will help eliminate use of drinking water provided by California American Water Company on the fairways, greens and open spaces of Del Monte Forest.

The reservoir — located northeast of Lopez Road — underwent massive rehabilitation and is very close to being officially finished, Andrews said.

“It is virtually completed,” he said. “We are still tweaking some of the controls and instruments, and finishing the reconstruction of the entrance road.”

The project is working well, and the reservoir has been used to irrigate the courses during the recent warm weather, said Mike Niccum, district engineer with PBCSD, which built the project with the Carmel Area Wastewater District.

The water is transported via pipeline from the CAWD plant on the south bank of the Carmel River to the reservoir, and from there is distributed to golf courses and fields.

All but two of Pebble Beach’s green spaces will be irrigated with wastewater from the reservoir.

“When the water is on its way from Carmel, Pebble Beach Golf Links and Cypress Point Club pull water off the main distribution line before it even reaches the reservoir,” Andrews said.

Other greens in Del Monte Forest, including Collins Field, the equestrian center and Robert Louis Stevenson School’s sports fields are all irrigated with reclaimed water.

The project also has peripheral benefits.

“One of the immediate payoffs is from an operational standpoint,” he said. “CAWD won’t have to worry about shutting the sewer plant down for maintenance now. In the past, they really had to keep that plant fine-tuned, and when they shut it down for routine maintenance we were short of water, so that is a big relief.”

When the project to use reclaimed water to irrigate golf courses began in 1994, it was discovered the mineral content was too high for the type of grass used on the golf courses. Since then, drinking water has also been used to rinse the greens to get rid of the salt from the reclaimed water.

Phase II of the project includes constructing an advanced filtration system using reverse osmosis at the CAWD treatment plant to reduce the salt content of the water pumped to the reservoir . Until that is completed in 2007, the greens will still have to be periodically flushed.

The reservoir’s rehabilitation was delayed about a month due to the heavy rains, and the project went slightly over budget.

“Most of that was due to requirements from the state’s division of safety of dams,” Andrews said.
The state agency, which had representatives on site during the rehabilitation, issued a permit for the reservoir to hold 325 acre-feet of water.

Ironically, the heavy precipitation also had its pluses, Niccum said.

“The late rainfall significantly reduced irrigation demand,” he said.

In the summer, when demand is at its greatest, the golf courses will require up to 4.5 million gallons of water per day.

“It is always a challenge to operate a new facility during the startup phase,” Niccum said. “Forest Lake Reservoir will store recycled water with a potential for algae growth due to the high nutrient content of the recycled water and exposure to sunlight in an open reservoir for a period of several months.”

To offset algae growth, mixer and air bubble systems were installed to allow the reservoir to remain naturally balanced and reduce the need to add chemicals to remove algae, Niccum said.

The 30-foot-deep reservoir also has potential safety hazards. Already, one deer has fallen into the reservoir but was fished out unharmed, said Rick Verbanec, president of the Del Monte Forest Property Owners.

“They have done a number of things for security,” Verbanec said. “They are installing an 8-foot fence, not so much for kids but for deer.”

Crews also installed bollards with ropes across the top of the reservoir that can be grabbed if a person falls in, he said.

“If anybody gets in, they can get a hold of the ropes and walk up the side to get out,” Verbanec said. “They do have a small maintenance boat out there in case they need to get in and do repairs or fish out critters.”

Rehabilitation of the reservoir required major excavation, including grading of the surface, reconstruction of the reservoir’s north embankment, and shoring up and strengthening the reservoir to make sure it could withstand earthquakes.

To prevent it from leaking water, construction crews lined the entire surface of the 980,000-square-foot reservoir with Hypalon, a brand-name waterproof material, which will prevent most of the reservoir’s water from seeping into the earth.

“The division of safety of dams has a requirement that in the event of an emergency, one-half of the permitted water storage volume of the reservoir can be released by gravity over a seven-day period,” Niccum said. “This project will use a 24-inch emergency drain line from the reservoir to Sawmill Gulch Creek to meet the requirement.”

The reservoir, which was originally built in the late 1800s, was used by California American Water before the company sold it to the Pebble Beach Community Services District.

Funding for the project came from the reimbursement of the sale of potable water credits for residential remodels and construction of vacant lots in Pebble Beach, Andrews said.