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Table of contents
- About Coachella Valley Water District
- Water quality and characteristics
- Conservation
- Water meters and high bills
- Water delivery
About Coachella Valley Water District
Q. What is the Coachella Valley Water District?
A. Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) is a government agency formed in 1918 by the registered voters within the district. The district is led by a five-member elected board of directors.
Q. What services does CVWD provide?
A. CVWD is responsible for: the importation and distribution of domestic water; wastewater collection and reclamation; regional stormwater and flood protection; importation and distribution of irrigation water; irrigation drainage collection; groundwater management; and water conservation.
Q. How can I find out about job openings with CVWD?
A. Employment opportunities are listed on CVWD's Web site at www.cvwd.org/employment/jobs.php. The district also updates the information on the job hotline, (760) 398-2661 ext. 2103.
Water quality and characteristics
Q. Why is the water from my faucet sometimes cloudy?
A. Cloudy tap water is caused by air bubbles in the water. It is completely harmless and does not affect the water's taste or quality. If the water is allowed to sit for a couple minutes, the air will dissipate and the water will clear.
Q. Why are there sand particles in my tap water?
A. Because the Coachella Valley's drinking water comes from a vast underground aquifer, it's unavoidable that some fine particles will make it past the filters in the wells and into the delivery system. These particles typically settle in the pipes, but in some occasions make it through the faucet. These sand particles are completely harmless and pose no health risk.
Q. Is our drinking water considered hard or soft?
A. The hardness of the valley's drinking water ranges by geographic region. A majority of the district's water averages a hardness level of 110 parts per million, which is considered moderate. Some areas are as soft as 12 parts per million and some as hard as 190 parts per million. To learn the hardness level of a particular area, read the district's annual Water Quality Report online at www.cvwd.org. Regardless of your water's hardness, Water softeners are not recommended. If you must use a softener, water district rules and regulations require you use one that doesn't discharge salt down the drain.
Q. Why does the district prohibit water softeners that discharge salt down the drain?
A. There are four main reasons why the district has an ordinance prohibiting the use of water softeners that discharge salt down the drain. 1. Salt is a corrosive substance that prematurely damages pipes. 2. The district's wastewater collection and treatment facilities are not equipped to remove salt from sewer water and the district itself is regulated from allowing too much salt to pass through the treatment facilities. 3. A high concentration of salt in the recycled water produced at the treatment plants can make it unusable for irrigating golf courses, causing customers of treated water to instead use groundwater and placing an unnecessary demand on our precious aquifer. 4. Excess salt in treated water eventually makes its way back to the aquifer. Our groundwater is very clean and requires little treatment before coming to your tap, but large concentrations of salt will eventually have an adverse impact on the water quality.
Q. Can I put my unused prescriptions or over-the-counter medication down the drain?
A. Unused medications should be taken to a household hazardous waste collection site or crushed and put in a sealed container and then in a trash can where children and pets can’t reach them. Medications should not be flushed into the sewer system. These practices help protect water supplies.
Q. Why is warm water coming out of my cold faucet?
A. When the hot summer sun bakes the earth, the heated ground warms up the pipes that carry water to your home. Unfortunately, this summer phenomenon is a fact of life in the desert. Past experiments with burying water pipes as deep as five feet below the surface showed no appreciable difference in the water temperature.
Q. What can I do about the warm water coming out of my cold faucet?
A. First, be careful when touching water right out of the tap as cold water can come out as high as 101 degrees in extreme conditions. You can let your water run for a short time before touching, but know that after approximately one minute the water sitting in your home's pipes will be cleared and water from your neighborhood system will be coming through the faucet. This water is not going to change temperature until fall, so continuing to run the faucet is wasteful. Place a pitcher of tap water in the refrigerator for a ready supply of cold drinking water.
Q. Is the water warmer in specific areas of the valley?
A. The less that water circulates through a system, the warmer it's likely to be. Therefore, if your residence is in a neighborhood where people are away for the summer, your water will be warmer than if you live in a neighborhood where people are using water on a consistent basis.
Q. How can I learn more about the quality of my drinking water?
A. Each year, CVWD publishes a Water Quality Report in accordance with state law and mails it to every CVWD customer and registered voter within the district's boundaries. This free report lists the substances detected in the drinking water and provides the state and federal drinking water regulations for those substances, if such regulations exist, so that you may analyze the data yourself. A copy of this report is available at www.cvwd.org or by calling the district's Water Quality Division at (760) 398-2651.
Conservation
Q. How can I save water and money on my next bill?
A. First, be aware that most households in the desert use 70 to 80 percent of the water outside on landscaping, washing cars, hosing driveways and filling pools. Therefore, smarter water management outside the home will have the most significant overall impact on your water use and water bill.
Here are some conservation tips for outside the home:
- Adjust your irrigation time with the seasons. An average spray irrigation system needs only to run 3-4 minutes per day in the winter to keep grass healthy.
- Replace at least a portion of your grass with water-efficient landscaping, rocks and decomposed granite. Converting an all-grass lawn to all desert landscaping can result in a 70 percent reduction in water use. Coachella Valley Water District's landscaping guide Lush & Efficient Gardening in the Coachella Valley offers more than 100 examples of colorful options that require little water.
- Sprinklers should be positioned to water the yard, not sidewalks and streets. Try changing the angle of a sprinkler head or using a type that sprays fl at to avoid water loss due to wind. Move sprinkler heads 12-18 inches from hardscape, designing the edges of the yard with water-efficient plants on a drip irrigation system.
- Use a broom instead of the hose to clean driveways and sidewalks. Don't let the hose run when washing a car, but instead use a nozzle that can be turned off when water isn't needed.
Here are some conservation tips for inside the home:
- Replace worn-out fixtures, washers and o-rings to avoid leaking faucets. Small leaks in faucets and toilets can waste 200 gallons per day. Moderate leaks can waste 800 gallons per day.
- To determine if you have a leak in your system, shut off all water-using fixtures and the irrigation system and look at your meter (be careful of spiders or bees under the lid). If the dial is showing water use, despite everything being turned off , there is a leak. For small leaks you may have to note the dial position and return several minutes later to see if there has been movement.
Water meters and high bills
Q. How do I know my water meter is working correctly?
A. Each meter used by CVWD must meet the high standards of the American Water Works Association and must be accurate within 1.5 percent in order to pass inspection. When meters do fail, usually due to excessive wear or corrosion, the result is water moving through the meter undetected, causing an inaccurately low reading.
Q. How is my water use determined?
A. Your water meter mechanically records water as it flows through the pipes. For most meters, an employee visually reads the meter each month and inputs the reading into a hand-held computer. If the reading is unusually high or low the computer will beep. Employees are then required to take another look and input it a second time to ensure he or she is reading and inputting the number accurately. Newer, automated meters send the information directly to the billing department.
Q. What can cause an unusually high water bill?
A. There are a number of factors that could result in an unusually high water bill. For example, out-of-town guests may increase water usage through showers. During the summer, refilling the pool or increasing your landscape watering time (which should be decreased again when fall arrives) can cause a significant boost in water use.
Q. What if I suspect my unusually high water bill isn't caused by water use?
A. First, determine if you have a leak in your system. Shut off all water-using fixtures and the irrigation system and look at your water meter (be careful of spiders or bees under the lid). If the dial is showing water use, despite everything being turned off, then there is a leak. Toilet leaks are perhaps the most common. Call a leak detection company to find the leak.
Q. What if I do all that and still can't find the answer?
A. Call CVWD for an analysis of your bill based on a two-year history of usage and request that an employee conduct a field test of your system.
Water delivery
Q. Where does the Coachella Valley's drinking water come from?
A. Water at the tap comes from the huge underground aquifer. The aquifer is divided into eight subbasins and roughly bordered by the San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino Mountains on the east, the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains on the west, the Banning Fault on the north, and Mecca hills watershed and northwest shoreline of the Salton Sea on the south.
Q. Where do valley farmers get their water?
A. The east valley farms primarily irrigate with Colorado River water, delivered by the 122-mile Coachella Canal.
Q. Where do golf courses get their water?
A. Some golf courses use groundwater for irrigation, some use Colorado River water and more than a dozen use recycled water from two of the district's six wastewater reclamation plants.
Q. How do I apply for Water/Sewer service?
A. To apply for Water/Sewer service download and print the Service Application here. Then fill out the application with your information and fax or mail it to the number or address provided on the form.