The Water Replenishment District of Southern California has unanimously approved and signed an agreement with J.F. Shea Construction, Inc. to build a $107 million state-of-the-art water treatment plant that will enable the Water District to develop the first sustainable groundwater basins in California.
“This is an exciting day,” said Water District Board President Willard H. Murray, Jr. “The Los Angeles region has a long and sometimes colorful history of importing water to quench our thirst. With this project the Water District will be turning a corner in our water history.
“The Water Replenishment District’s future will be built on water recycling, drought-proofing our water supplies and ending our reliance on imported water. All of these new developments will be great for rate-payers and for the environment.”
When the Groundwater Reliability Improvement Project Advanced Water Treatment Facility is completed in 2018, Water Replenishment’s two groundwater basins, the Central and West Coast Basins, will be exclusively replenished with captured stormwater and recycled water.
Most of it will be purified by the Groundwater Reliability facility for safe groundwater replenishment.
Albert Robles, treasurer of the , Board of Directors Treasurer –
“This project once seemed impossible, but now it is inevitable,” marveled Albert Robles, treasurer of the Water Replenishment District, who doubles as mayor of the city of Carson. .
”The road to getting here has not been easy. We started this project during a drought in 2004 when everyone was applauding the project.
“But when we hit rainy times,” Mr. Robles said, people came to the board and said the project was no longer needed. We stayed the course, though, because we knew there would be more droughts. And there were. Now we are in a drought again, and the Water Replenishment District looks very smart for staying the course. I am proud of what we have done.”
Currently the Water Replenishment District partially maintains the water levels in these aquifers with 21,000 acre feet of water imported from Northern California and from the Colorado River.
With the Groundwater plant, water imports no longer will be necessary. Imported water is increasingly expensive. In the future, it will be more difficult to acquire for groundwater management.
Water Replenishment groundwater supplies are the source of half of the water used by 4 million residents of south Los Angeles County living in 43 cities.
The Groundwater plant in Pico Rivera, will be the cornerstone of Water Replenishment’s Water Independence Now program. This is a coalition of water conservation efforts aimed at helping the District achieve complete independence from imported water.
California’s continuing drought have aggravated the cost and availability of gaining independence from imported water.
In effect, the Groundwater Reliability project will provide residents of Water Replenishment’s service area with drought protection.
Construction of the Groundwater plant is scheduled to begin in the fall.
Shea has tremendous experience with this kind of construction. In recent years it has built the largest wastewater recycling plant in the world and the largest desalinization plant in the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Schwada may be contacted at john.schwada@gmail.com
