Groundwater Replenishment System

ORANGE COUNTY WATER DISTRICT AND ORANGE COUNTY SANITATION DISTRICT BOARDS TO VOTE ON CONTRACT FOR
ADVANCED WATER PURIFICATION FACILITY
Advanced Water Purification Facility is the key component of the
Groundwater Replenishment System

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – Tonight the Orange County Water District (OCWD) and Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) boards will receive a briefing on the Advanced Water Purification Facility construction bids prior to each agency voting on the contract. OCWD will vote on the contract tonight and OCSD will vote on April 28. The Advanced Water Purification Facility is the key component of the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, an innovative water purification project designed to provide a new supplemental source of high-quality water to Orange County residents.

The engineers’ estimate for the Advanced Water Purification Facility was $253.6 million. The lowest qualified bid was 14.7 percent, or about $39 million, more than the engineer’s estimate. Instability in the worldwide steel market was identified as the single largest contributor to the variance in the bids. Steel prices are also impacting other projects in Orange County and throughout the United States.

OCWD and Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) staff has carefully examined the benefits and risks of either accepting or rejecting the apparent lowest qualified bid. The team has determined that awarding the contract is the most cost-effective alternative, as steel prices are expected to continue to escalate. Additionally, both agencies have had good experience with the lowest bidder on other projects.

The Advanced Water Purification Facility is just one of seven projects that are part of the GWR System. It is the only one that has come in at a higher cost. Three of the projects were bid exactly as budgeted, and three were bid significantly under the estimated project cost. Savings from these projects will reduce the impact to the overall GWR System project budget.

“No one in the country is taking a project on that has this dramatic combination of volume and quality,” said Denis Bilodeau,” OCWD president. We remain committed to the Groundwater Replenishment System and will work to ensure the project is built in the most cost-effective manner.”

In fact, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California recently selected the GWR System to receive $3.8 million annually over 23 years for operation of the System. This will help offset the increased price of steel and still keep the cost of GWR System water at roughly $500 per acre-foot, which has always been the goal. An acre-foot of water is equal to 326,000 gallons or is enough for two small families for one year.

While the GWR System project budget will have to be increased by $33 million, the impact on the average ratepayer is estimated to be less than three dollars per household per year.

The GWR System will take highly treated sewer water that is currently released into the ocean and – using the same technologies that purify food, medicines and bottled water – create a new supply of very high-quality water to use in a seawater intrusion barrier and to augment groundwater supplies. The water purification technologies used in the advanced water purification plant will include microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide advanced oxidation treatment. The water not used in the seawater barrier will be pumped through the pipeline to Anaheim where it will be emptied into OCWD’s Kraemer percolation basin to be further filtered and purified through the ground, following the same natural path rainwater takes through the ground.

EDITOR’S NOTE: ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, THE OCWD BOARD VOTED 8-1 TO AWARD THE CONTRACT FOR THE ADVANCED WATER PURIFICATION FACILITY. THE NET EFFECT OF THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT SUBSIDY AND THE INCREASED COST OF THE PURIFICATION PLANT REDUCES THE COST PER ACRE-FOOT OF GWR SYSTEM WATER BY $40 PER ACRE-FOOT TO A NEW LOWER WATER COST OF $476 PER ACRE-FOOT.

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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.

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.