The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is building awareness and understanding of a potential new drought-proof water supply for the region by hosting virtual tours of its Regional Recycled Water Program demonstration facility.
Participants will be introduced to Southern California’s water supply sources while virtually visiting Metropolitan’s new Regional Recycled Water Advanced Purification Centre, developed in partnership with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.
The demonstration facility is the first step in what could become the largest advanced water treatment plant in the nation. The full-scale facility would purify treated wastewater currently sent to the ocean, allowing it to be reused and creating a new, drought-proof water supply for Southern California.
Metropolitan board Chairwoman, Gloria D. Gray said: “As we develop this new water supply, it’s important that we engage everyone we can across our diverse service area because this large project would deliver water throughout the region. Offering tours in English and Spanish is an opportunity for more people across Southern California to learn about what we are doing to ensure our region has reliable water even as climate change challenges our other water sources.”
Currently, only about 10 percent of Southern California’s wastewater is reused. Metropolitan’s demonstration facility is testing an innovative treatment method to purify and reuse wastewater. If built, the full-scale plant would produce 150 million gallons per day, enough to serve more than 500,000 homes. Purified water may be used for groundwater replenishment, industrial purposes and potentially as an additional supply into Metropolitan’s water treatment plants.
Metropolitan Chief Operating Officer, Deven Upadhyay said: “This project is a major investment to reduce Southern California’s reliance on imported water supplies. By tapping an unused source of wastewater, we’re continuing to diversify the region’s water sources to ensure we always have reliable water.”
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