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CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE ON PIPELINE TO EXPAND PROTECTION
OF ORANGE COUNTY'S GROUNDWATER BASIN FROM SEAWATER INTRUSION
Pipeline is part of visionary project that will provide new source of high quality water
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – The Orange County Water District (OCWD) announced today that construction on a pipeline that helps provide additional protection to Orange County’s large groundwater basin from saltwater intrusion has been completed.
The pipeline, which runs from Ellis Avenue and Ward Street in Fountain Valley to Adams Avenue near the Santa Ana River, has been built as part of the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, an innovative project designed to deliver a new supplemental source of high quality water to Orange County users. The 9,000 feet of new pipeline is currently delivering 4 million gallons of water per day to the seawater barrier.
OCWD has protected Orange County’s underground basin from ocean intrusion for the past 25 years by purifying sewer water to drinking water standards and injecting it into the groundwater basin to keep the seawater from intruding into the groundwater basin.
“The new pipeline is one of a number of projects OCWD is working on to protect our underground drinking water supply from saltwater intrusion,” said Denis Bilodeau, president of the Orange County Water District Board of Directors. “We are committed to expanding the seawater barrier to help maintain this precious natural resource for future generations.”
The GWR System will take 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. The purified water will become part of a seawater barrier and also be pumped through a 13-mile pipeline to percolation ponds in Anaheim where it will seep into deep aquifers and blend with Orange County’s other sources of groundwater, following the same natural filtering path rainwater takes through the ground.
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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