Furman Park to transition to recycled water

A grant from the Department of Water Resources (through the Gateway Water Management Authority) would see Furman Park’s irrigation system retrofitted from potable to recycled water. (Photo by Alex Dominguez)

This story has been updated to reflect the results of Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

DOWNEY - Furman Park will soon move to recycled water to maintain its grounds.

The city council on Tuesday unanimously approved a subrecipient agreement with the Gateway Water Management Authority (GWMA), which will allocate $814,800 of a Proposition 1 grant from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) towards the retrofit of the park’s landscape irrigation system from potable to recycled water by extending an existing 8-inch recycled water main from Rio Hondo Golf Club to Furman. The extension of the city’s recycled water main additionally allows for a similar retrofit of neighboring Rio Hondo Elementary School by Downey Unified School District.

According to city staff’s report, completion of the project will increase the city’s water use efficiency by conserving potable water.

The project is estimated to cost around $1,410,444, split between the grant funds and a minimum $595,644 in City matching funds, according to the subrecipient agreement.

The grant was provided to the GWMA from the DWR for the Regional Recycled Water Expansion Project

Downey is one of two GWMA member agencies that is a subrecipient of the grant, the other being the city of Bell Gardens.