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ORANGE COUNTY WATER DISTRICT BOARD
APPROVES OPERATING AGREEMENT
FOR $427 MILLION GROUNDWATER REPLENISHMENT SYSTEM
Visionary water project will use
bottled water purification technology.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. - The Orange County Water District (OCWD)
Board of Directors Wednesday night voted 8-to-1 to approve a joint
development, operation and maintenance agreement with the Orange
County Sanitation District (OCSD) for the Groundwater Replenishment
System (GWR System). The agreement now goes to the OCSD Board
for its vote on October 23.
The GWR System will use highly treated wastewater from OCSD and
purify it to better than current drinking water quality through
high-tech filtration processes, including reverse osmosis, which
is used by many bottled water companies.
For 25 years, OCWD has purified sewer water to drinking water
standards for injection into the groundwater basin to keep seawater
out of the underground drinking water supply. As Orange County
continues to use more groundwater, the GWR System will expand
that process, providing a new source of water for the underground
barrier as well as for OCWD's water portfolio.
The Joint Powers Agreement spans 30 years and covers Phase One
of the GWR System, which is scheduled for completion in 2007.
Under the agreement, OCWD and OCSD will share equally the capital
costs to build the project, while OCWD will pay for operations,
maintenance and repairs once the system is operational.
Board Approves Operating Agreement For New Water Project…
Benefits to OCWD include 72,000 acre-feet per year of new water,
enough to meet the needs of 140,000 Orange County families annually;
and OCSD benefits by not having to build another ocean outfall
to handle increasing flows to the ocean.
"Policymakers need to look ahead," said Jan Flory,
OCWD Director and Councilwoman from the City of Fullerton who
voted for the project. "This is a project that addresses
water needs we will have in 20 to 35 years. This is a vote for
the future."
According to OCWD General Manager Virginia Grebbien, purified
water developed through the GWR System provides an independent,
locally controlled supply that diversifies OCWD's water supply
portfolio; help reduce the minerals in the groundwater; and reduces
OCWD's dependence on imported water.
Once completed, the GWR System will take highly treated sewer
water that is currently released into the ocean, and purify it
through a redundant system including 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.
Future work on the GWR System includes demolition of the existing,
smaller Water Factory 21 water purification facility in Fountain
Valley; construction of the new larger water purification facility;
and construction of 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 2007.
More information on the Groundwater Replenishment System can
be found by visiting 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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