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Project: Vintage Greens Residential Development and Recycled Water

Client: Condiotti Enterprises

Condiotti Enterprises purchased 108 acres in the Town of Windsor to build a residential subdivision that would include 475 houses, four parks, a neighborhood center parcel, and a soccer park facility. What began as a routine development project ended up being quite unique because of an interest to add a recycled water component to the new homes for front and back yard irrigation.

Windsor had long been exploring various options for the use of recycled water due to their finite right to withdraw water for potable uses from the Russian River and the limited capacity to dispose of tertiary treated effluent from their wastewater treatment plant. One of the most realistic options to overcome these hurdles was to implement residential recycled water irrigation.

The Town offered incentives to both the developer and homeowners to make the plan for recycled water use a reality. The developer received fee offsets to build the recycled water infrastructure and homeowners received free backyard irrigation pipe and sprinklers, as well as free recycled water for ten years.

Several challenging design aspects were faced, including the positioning of service laterals to each house and underground utility main placement. Traditional subdivisions require that three liquid-conveying utilities (water, sewer, and storm drain) be contained within the edge to edge limits of city streets, while maintaining adequate separation from adjacent utilities and avoiding crossing conflicts. Addition of a fourth utility (recycled water) to an already crowded layout greatly increased the potential for utility conflict. Brelje & Race engineers not only successfully addressed problems presented by this increased potential but also laid groundwork for new standards governing the installation of recycled water utilities.

The entire development will use 41 million gallons of recycled water per year, or approximately 13% of Windsor’s yearly recycled water irrigation demands.