Brentwood residents get early start on preparations for another heavy drought
BRENTWOOD (CBS SF) -- Temperatures have been up. Water districts and the governor have repeatedly been asking people to conserve. So are habits changing as we head further into the dry season? One East Bay spot that may offer a hint, and that's the Brentwood Recycled Water Filling Station.
"Basically, when the drought was going to become serious, I decided I would act preventively," said Gary Groshong as he stepped out of his car. "And I started putting in a system."
Groshon has only been using recycled water for about eight months, but his system is the kind of thing you might expect from an equipment engineer in the semiconductor industry.
"It's now time to transfer into the big tanks in the backyard," Groshong said, pointing to a pipe system. "So I have a special line that basically carries all the way to the back.."
His exterior pipes are entirely disconnected from city water. His lawns, and gardens, are fed only by recycled water and one pump.
"If they are all up, that means it is going from the tanks and up and out the sprinklers," Groshong said, shifting his pumping system. "My wife says I go overboard. But that's what I always do."
Lately, he's been operating his system with some company.
"So it's been really busy in the last month," Groshong said of traffic at the recycled water filling station. "Once the heat starts coming up, everyone starts showing up."
"We have roughly doubled in the last month or so," said Casey Wichert with the City of Brentwood "So we're seeing about 120 people a day swiping through that station."
The city says traffic is picking up, and they're expecting a lot more.
"That will be the big driver, when the governor says you can't water outside," Wichert explained. "When that gets mandated, we will see not just an increase in residence, but we will probably see some entrepreneurs coming out with water trucks, going around and selling to their neighbors."
"It used to be free until the cost of gas skyrocketed up," Groshong said of the savings. "Now I'm paying quite a bit in gas money."
Gas, of course, does change the equation, especially when pulling more than 2,000 pounds of water. Gary says he's not changing course.
"Essentially, it's still free water," Groshong said. "And to me, it's the right thing to do, because we are in a drought."
So busier at the stations, but not yet like during the peak of the last drought, though the city, and the people who use this water don't think those days are too far away.