Recycled Water May Be Killing The Redwoods

Recycled water is seen as an important means of overcoming water scarcity, but it also might present a danger to trees.

"With a drought continuing to punish California, cities across Santa Clara County are expanding their use of recycled water to irrigate parks. But the water-saving step may put a local icon at risk: redwood trees," KQED recently reported.

The natural habitat of redwoods on the West Coast has very little salt, according to the report. But recycled water introduces higher salt levels into the environment.

Nelda Matheny, a tree expert who works on recycled water projects, explained the dilemma.

“We’re not going to be able to irrigate parks with potable water (long term), and the redwoods can’t survive without water,” she said, per the report. “In one way or another, redwoods are going to fade from our Bay Area landscapes.”

How bad is the impact of recycled water on redwoods?

"In Mountain View, about 150 redwood trees — around half of the redwoods the city has been irrigating with recycled water for the past four years — have seen 10 to 40 percent of their leaves die, said Bruce Hurlburt, the city’s parks manager," the report said.

Solutions to the problem are few and far between.

"Most of the options range from bad (creating a separate irrigation system for the trees, which would be expensive and tough to implement) to worse (removing redwoods from city parks)," the San Francisco Chronicle reported in a commentary.

California got heavy rainfall in December but the drought is expected to continue.

"Despite the heavy storm that hit California last week – complete with flooded creeks and mudslides, closed highways and downed trees – it will take a lot more of the same to end the drought. In fact, experts say it may take five or six more storms like it to consider the drought over," the Sacramento Bee reported.

Check out Water Online's Water Reuse Solution Center.