Crescenta Valley Water District dedicates well at Rockhaven
As the ribbon is cut by the Crescenta Valley City Council, Morgen Durose turns a valve to show the flow of water being pulled from the ground into the pumping station during the dedication at the former Rockhaven Sanitarium in Montrose on Friday, March 18, 2016.
The former Rockhaven Sanitarium is known for its place in Montrose history, but now it’s also a major source of water for nearby residents.
The Crescenta Valley Water District on Friday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water well on a corner of the Rockhaven property that will pump about 400 gallons a minute, enough to serve 1,000 households, said Thomas Love, the utility’s general manager.
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“It’s a significant supply for our area and, during the course of the California drought, it’s even more important to develop a local water supply that meets the public’s needs,” he said.
However, the water that’s pumped from 300 feet underground in the Verdugo Basin isn’t immediately safe to drink. A pipe system more than 1,200 feet long will carry the water to the nearby Glenwood Plant, where nitrates will be removed before it’s delivered to customers.
The location of the treatment plant is the reason why the water district gained control of the well. Rockhaven is owned by the city, which, in turn, made it the owner of the well. But the pumping site was too far for Glendale Water & Power to treat the water itself.
Crescenta Valley Water District employees push a housing structure out of the way to reveal the new pump station at the former Rockhaven Snitarium in Montrose on Friday, March 18, 2016. The well is 350 feet deep, pumping 400 gallons of water per minute, and accounts for 10% of the water production for the Crescenta Valley Water District.
So, last year, the Glendale utility leased the site and water-pumping rights to the Crescenta Valley Water District for $140,000 a year.
“It’s a win-win,” Love said. “We get a new water supply. It’s less expensive than our imported water.”
Roughly 40% of what reaches Crescenta Valley District’s taps is bought from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District.
The Rockhaven well will pump about 10% of the district’s supply and costs 30% less than having to buy water, Love said.
“Water agencies having projects like this, and taking advantage of resources and working together makes a lot of sense,” said Michael De Ghetto, assistant general manager of Glendale Water & Power.
The new well is the 16th for the Crescenta Valley Water District and the first since the 1950s, Love said.
It will pump water 24 hours a day and is enclosed in a shed, which is fenced off, to lower the amount of noise it generates.
It has a tile roof with a style that was intentionally chosen to reflect the architecture of Rockhaven property, Love said.
“We understand the historic significance of the site and wanted to make sure we took that into account,” he said. “We don’t want this [site] to look like an industrial site.”
To that end, some members of the Crescenta Valley Town Council said they were pleased with the look of the project.
“The roof of the [shed] mimics the roofs of the buildings on the [Rockhaven] site,” said Lisa Griffin, corresponding secretary for the council. “It really mimics the property well.”
The former Rockhaven Sanitarium opened in 1923 and closed in 2006. It was purchased by the city of Glendale for $8.25 million in 2008.
Just this month, the City Council opened up the Rockhaven property to proposals to let the site operate as either a mental health facility again or as a boutique shopping center.
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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com
Twitter: @ArinMikailian
