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After having shut down its Orinda Water Treatment Plant in the fall of 2016 for needed improvements, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has re-opened the facility and Sierra mountain water is now back on tap for the district’s 800,000 customers west of the Oakland Berkeley Hills. To ensure uninterrupted deliveries of water to customers during the shutdown, water normally treated at the Orinda Water Treatment Plant was treated at a combination of EBMUD’s other plants, including San Pablo, Sobrante and Upper San Leandro water treatment plants.
“This investment in the heart of our water system keeps high quality water flowing to our customers now and into the future,” says EBMUD Board President Lesa R. McIntosh. “It was complex and challenging to rebuild this key facility, but over the long-term we will reduce maintenance costs and the need for future service outages.”
The Orinda plant is the core of EBMUD’s treatment system. Online since 1935, the work required the shutdown of the plants large delivery pipelines and tunnel. Much of the work was completely underground and invisible to customers. Customers will benefit from improved reliability with the addition of backup power systems, upgraded water treatment processes and improved treatment configurations. Additionally, a new bifurcation valve will allow EBMUD to leave one half of the plant operating and serving customers while the other half undergoes repairs or improvements in the future.
Potentially more immediately evident to many of EBMUD’s customers will be a change in the taste of the water with the reintroduction of Sierra mountain water.
“With the Sierra snowmelt coming back to your tap, some customers may notice a change in the taste of their water,” according to EBMUD Board President McIntosh. “We hope customers will welcome the return of our pristine Mokelumne River source water, and take a drink from the sink this summer!”
EBMUD delivers water to East Bay customers from its six water treatment plants. The system not only ensures high quality water for drinking it also provides water for industry, sanitation and firefighting in the region. Although the Orinda facility is once again functional, additional construction work at the plant will continue through late 2018.
