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GROUNDWATER REPLENISHMENT SYSTEM
RECEIVES $30 MILLION
CONSTRUCTION GRANT
Single largest grant award from Proposition 13 funds
for Groundwater Storage Program Construction Grants
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.
– The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has
awarded $30 million in grant funding to the Groundwater Replenishment
System (GWR System). Proposition 13, also known as the Water Bond
2000, made the Groundwater Storage Construction Grant possible.
The GWR System grant represents the single largest DWR award
from $91 million in Groundwater Storage Program funds available
statewide. The grant program used a competitive process to decide
how to allocate the funds among 12 finalists from the 43 applications
submitted for funding. The latest award brings the total grant
funding for the GWR System to $92.5 million.
DWR recognized the GWR System for its potential to lessen overall
impact on the Bay-Delta system in Northern California by reducing
imported water demands an estimated 75,000 acre-feet per year
and for its ability to compensate for future cutbacks in California’s
supply of the Colorado River by having a new, local source of
water available.
"The Groundwater Replenishment System project embodies the
innovative technologies and interagency cooperation that will
be required to assure a reliable water supply for Orange County
businesses and families. I'm proud to join my Orange County colleagues,
both state and federal, in strongly supporting this project and
its critical role in our future. I applaud Governor Davis and
Department of Water Resources Director Thomas Hannigan for showing
their strong support for Orange County water reliability through
this grant," stated California State Assemblyman Lou Correa.
Once completed, the GWR System will take highly treated sewer
water that is currently released into the ocean, and purify it
through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light
with hydrogen peroxide advanced oxidation treatment, producing
water similar in quality to bottled water. The purified water
will become part of a seawater barrier and be pumped through a
13-mile pipeline to spreading basins in Anaheim where it will
percolate into deep aquifers and blend with Orange County’s
other sources of groundwater, following the same natural filtering
path rainwater takes through the ground.
“The Groundwater Replenishment System is an innovative project
that will improve local water quality, make our water supply more
reliable, and provide us with local control over part of our water
future,” said Irv Pickler, chairman of the Groundwater Replenishment
System Joint Cooperative Committee. “The grant further supports
Orange County’s efforts to ensure enough water for the future.”
The $30 million grant specifically provides funds for construction
of the Advanced Water Treatment facilities and pumping stations
and the 13-mile pipeline from the treatment facilities to existing
spreading basins.
“By continuing to support the GWR System with state funds,
California is telling the people of Orange County to move forward
on this very important project,” said Norm Eckenrode, Orange
County Sanitation District board member and co-chair of the Joint
Cooperative Committee for the Groundwater Replenishment System.
Future work on the GWR System includes demolition of the existing
world-famous Water Factory 21 water purification facility in Fountain
Valley; construction of the new water purification facility; constructing
new injection wells, a pump station and a 13-mile pipeline from
Fountain Valley to Orange County Water District’s groundwater
basin recharge facilities. The project is scheduled to produce
purified water by 2006.
For more information on the Groundwater Replenishment System,
visit here....
Orange County Water District is a special
district that was created by the California State Legislature
in 1933 to maintain and manage the groundwater basin under northern
and central Orange County. OCWD’s groundwater basin supplies
75% of the water needs in Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress,
Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine,
La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa
Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, and
Yorba Linda.
Orange County Sanitation District is the third
largest wastewater treatment system west of the Mississippi River,
serving 2.2 million residents in northern and central Orange County.
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