Water treatment plant’s groundbreaking really a celebration

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Water district officials will break ground Tuesday on

a long-awaited colored water treatment facility that is expected to

reduce reliance on imported water and provide residents with a low-cost

and stable source of water.

Construction began on the $13.1 million facility last month but the

groundbreaking is planned as a symbolic celebration of a 15-year-long

effort to bring treated colored water to Mesa Consolidated Water District

customers.

The colored water treatment facility is the first of its kind -- and

size -- in the world. It uses an ozone and biofiltration process to

remove the slight tea color and sulfur-like smell from the ground water

that is found in aquifers between 600 and 1,200 feet.

Otherwise, the water is high in quality. In fact, farmers used to

drink it from amber-colored glasses to try to disguise its more

unpleasant qualities.

“It is a nice resource that’s been untapped for all these years,” said

William Mills, general manager of the Orange County Water District.

“(It’s been) estimated that there’s 10 million acre feet of water in that

zone. It’s always been our idea that if we could find better and less

expensive technologies, it would be of great regional benefit for us.”

In Southern California, an acre foot of water is enough to supply two

average families for one year. Mesa now gets 75% of its water from

underground aquifers. The treatment plant will increase that number to

95%.

The treatment plant is also important because as the water from the

principal aquifer in Orange County is used up, colored water is under

more pressure to seep up and contaminate the principal aquifer, Mills

said.

For now, the facility will serve Mesa customers, but as the cost and

availability of imported water from the Colorado River and Northern

California rises, there will be a potential to serve surrounding

communities as well, said Karl Kemp, Mesa’s general manager.

But more important than being on the cutting edge of technology is the

fact that the district will be able to provide water to customers at a

low cost, said Board President Fred Bockmiller.

“Treated colored water is less expensive, more reliable and of higher

quality than imported water,” Bockmiller said. “It’s a good deal all

around for Mesa customers and the coastal community.”

Imported water costs $436 per acre foot; district officials expect the

colored water will cost about $350 per acre foot. A pilot program begun

in 1998 saved the district $250,000 in one year. Preliminary estimates

show that the colored water treatment plant could save $500,000 a year.

Customers will not have to absorb the cost of building the facility

into their rates because the district has already borrowed the required

funds through certificates of participation, Kemp said.

The treatment plant on Gisler Avenue, east of Harbor Boulevard and

south of the San Diego Freeway, will include a 1.25-million-gallon

storage tank, offices, buildings to house the ozonation and filtration

systems, a laboratory and landscaping.

Ozone works by “bleaching” the water to remove odor and color. The

biofiltration process removes organic materials from the water.

The first phase, which will allow the district to pump 5,600 acre feet

a year, is expected to be completed by July 2000. The second and third

phases of the projects, which could be completed in as few as two more

years, would allow the district to pump 13,000 acre feet a year.

“I think the excitement level is really high,” Kemp said. “I think it

will be even higher a year from now when we push the button and it starts

doing all the things we expect it to.”