Water project gets flood of cash

Angelique Flores

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- You wash with it. You swim in it. You drink it. Water

is in high demand -- and the demand is climbing.

Anticipating future water shortages, the Orange County Water and the

Orange County Sanitation districts have been working for seven years on a

program to recycle waste water.

With Proposition 13, the districts have come one step closer to their

goal. The measure, which passed with 65% of the vote, earmarks $37

million for the Groundwater Replenishment System, which would help wean

the districts from imported water. This is the first water bond in recent

history to designate 60% of its funds to Southern California.

“This is one of the most important projects the districts have been

involved with,” Councilman John Collins said. Collins formerly served as

a sanitation district appointee to the board that has been spearheading

the project.

The Groundwater Replenishment System would take the highly treated waste

water that is now discharged into the ocean and purify it to distilled

water quality. The county has pioneered equipment for the process, which

uses 100% reverse osmosis, microfiltration and ultraviolet disinfection

technology.

“We’ll treat it to the highest quality standard available to California,”

said Tom Dawes, project manager for the Groundwater Replenishment System.

The water would then be placed in the county’s ground-water basin. The

project will create a new supply of purified water, according to the

water district, enough for up to 200,000 north and central Orange County

families annually. The system would also be used to prevent seawater from

intruding into the basin.

The project is estimated to cost $600 million -- the water produced by it

would cost around $500 per acre-foot, Wildermuth said. One acre-foot is

equal to the amount of water needed to fill a football field a foot deep.

Water now costs $465 per acre foot.

“No new source of water is ever cheaper,” said Ron Wildermuth, the water

district’s spokesman. “We anticipate that the cost of imported water will

go up with inflation, so this is still a competitive price,”

The water and sanitation districts are conducting studies that are

expected to be completed by December, at which time they will decide

whether or not to execute the project. Wildermuth said the only factor

that could scuttle the project is cost.

“I don’t think cost is going to be a barrier,” Dawes said. “We can find

no other new source of water that’s as cheap.”

In addition to the $37 million from the state water bond, $20 million has

been approved from federal grants and $700,000 has been granted from the

California Energy Commission, which contributed because the water

produced will require 50% less energy than importing the water into the

county, Dawes said.

The remainder of the project will be funded through loans, which the

water and sanitation districts will repay through the sale of the water

back to the 23 cities they serve in northern and central Orange County.

If the project proves to be too expensive, the two districts will have to

find other sources of imported water, Wildermuth said.

“We’d have to hope that there is water available from other sources,” he

said.

Other avenues to take could include buying water from an agricultural

entity or desalinating ocean water -- the latter costs $2,000 an

acre-foot, Wildermuth said.

The reliability of other water sources is diminishing, Dawes said. The

cities in the water district receive 60% of their water from the

ground-water basin. The rest is imported from this supply will be reduced

from 5.5 million acre-feet a year to 4.4 million acre-feet a year, he

said.

“The population is growing, but the water supply isn’t,” Wildermuth said.

Water from the project would also improve the quality of water in the

county’s storage basin, Wildermuth said. Because the water will be nearly

salt-free, it will soften the basin water, saving consumers money by

reducing the corrosion of heaters, pipes and faucets. Less detergent and

soap will be needed in washing with the softer water, he said.Even if the

project does go proceed, the districts want to implement more water

conservation measures. Earlier this year, they gave out low-flush toilets

to residents.

“It’s easier to give people the mechanics to save water than to change

their behaviors,” Wildermuth said.

If everything goes according to plan, the Groundwater Replenishment

System project will begin its first phase in 2003 and finish the third

and final phase in 2020.