Colored water on its way any day

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The colored water treatment plant could begin pumping

water through the city any day now, water district officials said late

last week.

“Every day we’re testing various components,” said Diana Leach,

assistant general manager for Mesa Consolidated Water District. “Once

we’re satisfied that everything is working and that the water quality is

what it needs to be, then we’ll authorize a seven-day system test to put

the water into the system. Any day could be the day. A reasonable

expectation would be for it to begin in the next few days. We haven’t had

any serious problems but we’re just being very, very conservative.”

Two weeks ago, Mesa Consolidated Water District Operations Manager

Jerry Baldwin said the plant, the first of its kind and size in the

world, had begun its final testing.

The water district has worked for 16 years to provide treated colored

water -- high-quality underground water that starts with a “weak tea”

color and a sulfur-like smell -- to its customers.

The treatment plant will use an ozone and biofiltration process to

remove the color and smell from the water, which is found in aquifers

between 600 and 1,200 feet deep.

Originally scheduled to open in September, then October, the

completion of the plant was postponed because of design changes --

including adding a well and improving the filters -- to double the

capacity of the plant, said Baldwin and water board President Trudy

Ohlig-Hall.

The colored-water treatment facility, which initially will handle up

to 4,000 gallons per minute -- enough to meet the needs of the city --

will be capable of pumping out 8,000 gallons per minute if the district

decides to supply the treated colored water to areas outside of Costa

Mesa in the future, Baldwin said.

Mesa Consolidated’s plan to substitute treated colored water for

imported water will not lower rates immediately but should keep them

stable when surrounding districts’ water bills rise, said Lynette Round,

a Mesa Consolidated spokeswoman.

Aside from the fiscal benefits, the colored-water plant will also

protect the district from a water shortage, Ohlig-Hall said.

Leech said the district has not set a date for the opening of the

colored-water treatment plant because the opening will depend on when the

district begins getting perfect test results.

“Most likely it will be running and then we’ll say, ‘Go ahead, let the

water go,”’ she said. “There won’t be much fanfare. It’s like any piece

of equipment; it needs to be calibrated. The dosages need to be checked

by certain types of equipment. We’ve had a couple of sticky valves --

normal start-up issues you’d expect to have when doing a full-system

checkup. We want to get things exactly right.”