Purified Waste Water Proposed for Orange County Residents

In what officials say would be the largest project of its kind in the world, water agencies are proposing to send highly purified waste water into the faucets of more than 2 million households in central and north Orange County.

The $400-million ground water replenishment system would treat about 40% of the water that households flush down their drains--and that now is pumped to the ocean--so that it becomes as pure as bottled water, officials say. It then would be pumped into the ground water basin and eventually withdrawn by water districts throughout north and central Orange County for household use.

“This project will put [the waste water] through a treatment process which will turn it into the highest-quality water available in Orange County,” said Thomas Dawes, who is managing the project for the Orange County Water District and Orange County Sanitation District.

Officials of the two districts acknowledge that residents could be squeamish about drinking water that used to be mixed with sewage. They will hold a public hearing Tuesday to explain the project and get public feedback, and they expect to vote on it in the spring.

District officials say the system is needed because of the county’s rapid growth. Within 20 years, 800,000 new residents are expected in north and central county alone, creating demand for almost 50 billion additional gallons of water a year.