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The world’s biggest water recycling facility gets bigger in OC

April 15, 2023

Officials gathered Friday, April 14, to toast the completed expansion of a pioneering recycling facility that takes wastewater and turns it into clean, drinkable water for much of Orange County.

With the $284 million expansion to the 15-year-old Groundwater Replenishment System, the facility can now provide up to 130 million gallons of water per day, enough to serve 1 million people daily in north and central Orange County.

Sandy Scott-Roberts, GWRS program manager, walks past some of the 35,000 reverse osmosis membranes at the expanded Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Water in there stages; on the left it’s gone thorough filtration, reverse osmosis and UV light, in the center its been filtered for reclaimed water systems, and on the right it’s only been through reverse osmosis from OC San on display during the opening of a new Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

U.S. Representative Young Kim, center, and California assembly member Cottie Petrie-Morris use recycled water to toast a new Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A cut away of one of the reverse osmosis filters at the expanded Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Bottled, recycled waste water during the opening of the expanded Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Some of the 35,000 reverse osmosis membranes at the expanded Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

U.S. representatives Lou Correa, left, Young Kim, center, and Katie Porter, during the opening of the expanded Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley, CA, on Friday, April 14, 2023. The expansion produces 130 million gallons of water a day, enough for a million people. The GWRS recycles local wastewater and injects it in to the water ground table. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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“We really have something special right here in Orange County that we should all be proud of,” Cathy Green, the Orange County Water District’s board president, said. “Through decades of planning and proactive outreach, Orange County Water and Sanitation districts came together to implement a project that solves significant issues faced by each agency.”

There are two sources of water that residents get in Orange County: groundwater and water imported by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Groundwater is about half the cost of imported water, according to Mike Markus, general manager of the Orange County Water District.

Into the 1990s, the OC Water District relied on rain to keep groundwater basins filled, however long droughts meant more of a reliance on the purchase of imported water to meet needs, prompting the department to look for alternative ways to fill the basins.

The two agencies pioneered a recycling system to turn wastewater into clean, drinkable water.

“We built the first phase that went online in January 2008, providing 70 million gallons of water per day,” Markus said. “Since then, we’ve expanded it even further. We built an additional 30 million gallons per day that went online in May 2015.”

The now completed, more than $900 million Groundwater Replenishment System makes Orange County home to the world’s largest wastewater recycling plant.

The county’s wastewater is first treated at an OC Sanitation District plant in either Fountain Valley or Huntington Beach. Then, instead of being discharged into the ocean, it is sent to the Groundwater Replenishment System for several more steps in a purification process, including microfiltration and reverse osmosis, and then sent to replenish the groundwater aquifer. The result is a supply of quality drinking water ready to pump into faucets.

“As Californians, we all understand the importance of a stable source of drought-proof drinking water. GWRS provides that reliable supply of high-quality water, reducing our reliance on imported water,” Congresswoman Young Kim said during Friday’s celebratory event. “We’re so delighted to be representatives of this great county, and we can always tout the success of what we do, and show not only the nation, but the world, how we get things done.”

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Orange County Register

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The world’s biggest water recycling facility gets bigger in OC

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