Clear drinking water from smelly amber liquid

Alex Coolman

FAIRGROUNDS -- It appeared that Lynette Round was brewing up a batch

of tea Tuesday at the Orange County Fair.

In one jar, she had a few pints of clear water that looked like it

came from the tap. In another, Round had something reminiscent of a pot

of weak Lipton. The only thing missing was a few cups and saucers.

But the spokeswoman for the Mesa Consolidated Water District wasn’t

throwing a tea party, she was spreading the word about the district’s

newest plan to bring drinking water to its customers.

The scheme is to use something called “colored” water, which comes

from aquifers hundreds of feet below the level where water is ordinarily

obtained.

When the water is pumped up, from about 1,000 feet below the surface,

it typically has an orange or amber color, Round said.

It also smells a little odd, with a distinctly sulfuric tinge that

would cause all but the most thirsty to search elsewhere for refreshment.

The source of the quirky qualities, said district spokeswoman Coleen

Scarminach, lies in the organic material surrounding the underground

aquifer.

“There’s redwood trees and peat bogs down there,” Scarminach said.

“It’s from ages ago and it’s down in the ground now.”

The organic additives would make the water unpalatable to most

customers, but a filtering and cleaning process can render it pure and

odorless, Scarminach said. And it’s possible to clean colored water for

less than it would cost to import water from other areas.

Where imported water costs about $450 per acre-foot, the same quantity

of colored water can be cleaned and prepared for consumption for about

$320, Scarminach said.

Mesa Consolidated, which provides water for Costa Mesa, parts of

Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport, is not the only water agency taking

a look at colored water.

Ron Wildermuth, a spokesman for the Orange County Water District, said

his agency has been helping the Irvine Ranch and Huntington Beach water

districts to develop programs to use the smelly stuff.

“It’s very high-quality water except for the color molecule,”

Wildermuth said.

Mesa Consolidated’s plans are further along than others, though. The

agency aims to have as much of 25% of its water come from the “colored”

aquifers by fall of this year.