Helix Water District wins award, offers tour of facility

The Helix Water District has won an award from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. for its leadership in the public sector in San Diego County for being energy efficient and using sustainable practices in its operations.

SDG&E honored Helix at its 14th Annual Energy Showcase on April 30, noting Helix’s reduction in energy use by 25 percent over the last 10 years.

According to Helix spokesman Mike Uhrhammer, the district’s main use of energy is to pump water throughout its distribution system. It cost Helix $2.2 million in fiscal year 2017-18 to get water to its nearly 275,000 customers in East County.

Helix’s operations and design standards have been adjusted over the last few years to reduce the district’s energy demand during peak periods when SDG&E’s charges are higher.

Other changes by the district include:

• Putting transparent “energy film” on the windows of its Administration Office to retain interior heat in the winter and block solar heat in the summer.
• Switching to energy-efficient lights in all its district buildings. It constructed a solar energy system at the district’s operations center in El Cajon that further reduces energy demands and costs.
• Installing 20 electric vehicle charging stations at its operations center and administration office. It also received more than $20,000 in rebates from the state on electric cars it added to its fleet.

Helix is hoping to show off some of its energy-efficient ways on Saturday, offering a rare tour of its water treatment plant in Lakeside. The district will allow people to walk through its R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant near Lake Jennings starting at 8:30 a.m. The plant at 9559 Lake Jennings Park Road was built at a cost of $3 million and opened in March 1965.

Employees at the plant will show each step of the district’s water treatment process, from the control room to the chemistry lab to the ozonation facility. Since 2002, ozone has been produced on site by using liquid oxygen and ozone generators. As the primary disinfectant of the water, the ozone reduces the need for chlorine.

Water treated at the Levy plant comes from several sources, including the Colorado River, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and local runoff from Lake Cuyamaca and the El Capitan Reservoir.

Reservations are required and can be made at http://hwd.com