Water bond vote set for March

Ellen McCarty

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- Judgment day comes March 2000 for a $235 million state

water bond that, if approved by voters, will contribute $37 million to a

new drinking water purification system in North Orange County, water

district officials said Monday.

“The bond will take on the cost of water that would otherwise burden

consumers,” said Ron Wildermuth, spokesman for the Orange County Water

District.

As early as 2003, the Groundwater Replenishment System will convert the

county’s sewage water into ground water by pushing it through

microfiltration and reverse osmosis, big words that describe the process

of removing contamination at a molecular level.

On the street, the proposed system -- the first of its kind in the

country -- is often called “Toilet to Tap,” a term that doesn’t sit well

with stomachs of some residents.

“It just doesn’t sound very healthy, does it?” Huntington Beach resident

Marie Hessler said, while enjoying the sunshine at Pier Plaza on Monday.

“I don’t want to be a guinea pig.”

Although drinking treated sewage water doesn’t sound appealing, it’s

something tap-water drinkers do everyday, Wildermuth said.

“All rivers in the United States have treated waste water in them,” he

said. “The new system will actually provide an enormously higher quality

of water.”

The replenished county sewage water will be filtered through microscopic

membranes that catch the smallest contaminants, including viruses,

organic, inorganic materials, bacteria and protozoa. The filtered water

will be more pure than water imported from the Sacramento and Colorado

rivers, which contain high concentrations of pesticides and salt that

must be treated, in addition to treated waste water, he said.

Huntington Beach resident Roger Barrett said he’s not so sure he can

trust government officials to deliver clean drinking water, now that

contamination has claimed the ocean he always considered safe.

“I wouldn’t mind a new drinking water system if they could reassure me

that there’s nothing in the water,” he said.

The linked sanitation and water districts will free local cities,

including Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, from their dependence on

expensive imported water, Wildermuth said.

“Our goal is to make our watershed capable of withstanding drought

without importing water from Northern California and Colorado,” he said.

The remaining portion of the bond will fund new wetland development and

other conservation efforts on the Santa Ana River, which ties a

five-county region, and purify heavily contaminated water basins in

Riverside and San Bernadino counties.

Joseph Grindstaff, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project

Authority, mobilized the request for state funding.

He said the bond represents an important coordination between the state

Legislature and Southern California water officials, who must juggle a

growing demand for a limited resource while protecting the environment.

“We’re more and more aware as an industry that you can be friendly to the

environment and improve water quality,” he said.

Man-made wetlands, for example, absorb nitrates, harmful byproducts of

human and animal waste, and benefit wildlife and the water, he said.

For more information about the ground water replenishment system, call

the water district at 378-3351.