Our Neighbor To the North

Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 4:50 PM PDT

E-MAIL STORY

What's the difference between San Diego and Orange County when it comes to water? Same drought-prone climate, same end-of-the pipeline fears for supply reliability, arguably the same general conservative political atmosphere. So what's different? Orange County has a well-planned, well-researched, and well-regarded groundwater replenishment system.

Despite politician-driven fears over "toilet to tap" in San Diego, Orange County has been doing it for years at Water Factory 21. Since the mid 1960s, the plant has injected treated sewage into the ground to create a seawater intrusion barrier to protect aquifers used for drinking water. More recently, the Orange County Water District (OCWD) has been using the treated water to directly augment groundwater supplies. Since January of this year, OCWD has been turning sewage into drinking water and injecting it into the ground. The project has been a huge success, earning the OCWD the Toshiba Green Innovation Award and the Stockholm International Water Institute Award, which some consider the Nobel Prize of environmental science.

OCWD uses the same technology that would be used as part of San Diego's IPR. The only difference is the storage of the purified drinking water. Orange County has the luxury of plenty of groundwater storage availability. San Diego doesn't have the same groundwater aquifers to rely on, so local water supplies are stored in above-ground reservoirs. Instead of injecting the treated water into the ground, San Diego would store IPR water for at least a year in reservoirs, augmenting our (dirtier) imported water supplies. Before reaching your faucet, the water would be treated again. There's no distinction in the clarity or safety of the water between groundwater recharge and reservoir augmentation, the treatment is exactly the same. It's the storage of the water which explains the different nomenclature.

OCWD has also received numerous grants and aid to help fund its project. The district received $92 million in state and federal grants and $86 million in subsidies from the Metropolitan Water District. The Orange County Sanitation District also paid for half of the project costs because it saved them from building a second ocean outfall for its partially treated sewage. The result is drinking water that is more pure than our current supply, at half the cost.

Through the Groundwater Replenishment System, OCWD produces 72,000 acre-feet of water, enough for 500,000 people each year. With reduced pumping of the San Joaquin Delta and increasing global warming impacts, that makes quite a difference. But OCWD isn't alone. The same technology is used around the world to provide drinking water to people living in arid climates. Singapore and several cities in Australia also turn sewage into drinking water for their residents. As a fellow arid city, San Diego should look to these places for guidance and follow their lead.

-- GABE SOLMER

Editor´s Choice
The reader comments you won't want to miss. (Editor's Choice selection do not represent the views of the editors. They are comments that seem to add to the discussion as opposed to less productive insults or arguments.)

patrick..interesting that you shold ask that..i had heard some of those wories, so i went to orange county and did a long, involved report for kusi-tv on just how orange county does it- it's basically the same process we would use here, excepting the reservoir storage as opposed to the underground aquifer orange county has and is able to replenish. in direct answer to your question, the water that comes out of the orange county process is so absolutely pure that minerals and things have to be added to it, so that it has enough specific gravity to be able to be pumped. it is, in their words, "surgically pure"..in other words, so pure that it could be used during the surgical process to clean out incisions and operative fields. in plain english, there is NOTHING in it at all. I hope this relieves your concerns.. it certainly did mine. doug curlee kusi-tv news

Posted by doug curlee | reply to this comment
October 29, 2008 5:07 pm

Everyone who drinks tap water, or cooks with it, or ingests it in any other way, is now ingesting trace pharmaceuticals on a daily basis. Re-purifying sewage to federal potable water standards, using reverse osmosis (RO), removes these trace pharmaceuticals to a non-detectable level-unlike the current imported water purification process that brings water to our kitchen and bathroom taps today. RO is a relatively new technology in water purification (note "relatively new") yet residents of Fairfax County Virginia, have been drinking re-purified sewage for 30 years without RO and with no evidence of damage to public health. Continued rejection of "toilet to tap" as a source of water, at a time that our usual resources are diminishing rapidly and we have numerous examples that re-purifying sewage for drinking water is safe & reliable, is irresponsible and will be more and more costly the longer we wait.

Posted by Judy Swink | reply to this comment
October 30, 2008 9:43 am

4 Comments so far on this story...

I get that IPR is cost-effective but recently there has been a lot of information about pharmaceuticals and other health products being found in our sewage. If we use wastewater as the basis of our drinking water, aren't we taking a risk of concentrating those contaminants in our bodies?

Posted by patrick | reply to this comment
October 29, 2008 3:58 pm

I am astonished that an investigative reporter would only process the information that is before him rather than many different sources. Example: Orange County uses Caffeine as a marker in their water. A simple enough element that we ingest daily in cofee for one and yet we drink it, we discharge it.It goes into our waste water, it gets recycled, filtered and lo and behold it reappears in our drinking water. It in itself is harmless, but Prozac and Lipitor are just two of many pharmaceuticals that are found in OC water that is claimed to be "super pure". Our own city council doesn't drink our municipal water during council meetings. Lead by example? The annual water report for the city directs those of us with low immune systems to seek the advice form our health care professionals. So the city, presently, already cannot provide a waterproductforall.

Posted by max altman | reply to this comment
November 28, 2008 10:10 pm

Reader feedback

Users may post more than one comment, but should not pose as multiple users. Multiple posts from the same IP address but with a different user name on each will be reviewed to determine whether abuse has occurred.
Posts with overly personal attacks or unsubstantiated allegations may be edited or deleted.
Please be patient with the posts -- there may be a delay before they appear on the site -- and make sure to enter the code in the "image verification" box.