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ORANGE COUNTY’S HISTORIC WATER FACTORY 21 STOPS PRODUCING HIGHLY PURIFIED WATER
World-renowned, water industry icon to be demolished for newer,
high-tech water purification plant
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – This week, the Orange County Water District (OCWD) has officially stopped producing water from its world-renowned water purification plant, known as Water Factory 21. Water Factory 21, named for its use of 21st century technology – mainly reverse osmosis – was the nation’s pioneer sewer water purification facility. The Water Factory was shut down in anticipation of construction of an improved, high-tech and larger water purification plant to come on line in 2007. The Water Factory will be demolished later this year to make room for the new water purification plant.
Online since 1975, Water Factory 21 is a worldwide, water-industry landmark for its purification of sewer water that ultimately meets or is better than drinking water standards. For almost 30 years, Water Factory 21 has produced about 15 million gallons of purified water each day. Visitors, such as the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, the Head of the Environmental Protection Agency from Catalonia Spain, the Secretary of Agriculture for Israel, and many other officials from around the globe have come to Orange County and OCWD to learn more about water purification, groundwater management and how to prevent subsidence and seawater intrusion.
Water Factory 21 was included as part of major water management and water purification textbooks since the mid-1970s. Hundreds upon hundreds of water managers, engineers, scientists and students from around the world have visited Water Factory 21 each year for the past many years.
“This is both a sad and an exciting day for Orange County,” said Denis Bilodeau, president of the Orange County Water District Board of Directors. “Water Factory 21 has been the model for the rest of the world to follow. But as we close one chapter in Orange County’s water history, we are starting another new exciting one with the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, which will also be a worldwide model for future water management.”
The Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, a new high-tech water purification system, will produce water similar in quality to bottled water. GWR System water will be used to service a larger, expanded seawater barrier and to help drought-proof Orange County’s groundwater basin by providing better water reliability and more local control over part of our water future.
Water is injected into Orange County aquifers near the coast in order to create a fresh water mound or pressure zone, which acts as a barrier to keep ocean water from seeping into the groundwater basin. The water also helps to replenish the basin.
From now until 2007, when the new water purification system comes on line, the seawater barrier will keep receiving about 10 -13 million gallons per day of water from Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley and deep well water, if needed. New pipelines, which were recently built as part of the expanded seawater barrier system, will carry the water to local injection wells. This summer an interim water purification plant will come on line and produce about five million gallons a day of purified water that will replace some of the city water.
Using some of the same processes as bottled water companies, food manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies, the new GWR System purification process will include microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide, producing water of near-distilled water quality. The GWR System is a joint project between the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District. The new GWR System will ultimately provide enough water – 72,000 acre-feet per year – to meet the annual needs of 140,000 families.
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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