California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest wholesale supplier of water in the state, is considering a new project that could potentially create the largest recycled water program in the world. MWD has met with sanitation districts in Los Angeles County about the possibility of building a treatment plant and delivery facilities with the ability of recycling as much as 168,000 acre-feet of water a year.
The proposed project was brought up in a committee meeting on Monday when staff presented the framework for the project. The project would cost around $1 billion, if the price tag is the same as similar past projects.
The creation of this treatment plant and its delivery facilities would move Southern California away from importing water, as it currently does.
The California drought has many water agencies evaluating their water supply and their ability to be sustainable. Recycling water is one-solution water agencies have found to help ease the impact the drought has had on their long-term water supplies.
Hundreds of billions of gallons of treated sewage water is being dumped into the ocean on a yearly basis. Agency officials have been looking at how to recycle this water so it could be used more effectively. What they’ve come up with: treated sewage water can be used for irrigating crops, water park lawns and golf courses. The treated water can be used for a number of ways other than drinking water or disposing of it via the ocean.
Because of the severity of the California drought, water agencies have begun replenishing their traditional water supply with recycled water. Having this recycled water is increasing local water supply, something residents across the state have worried about.
Once MWD installs and begins operating their water replenishment program, they hope to purify 150 million gallons of water a day. Right now, the current record holder for largest recycling system in the world goes to Orange County’s Ground Replenishment System, which can replenish 100 million gallons of water per day.
