FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:...................................................................................................................................July 19, 2001
FUNDING FOR GROUNDWATER REPLENISHMENT SYSTEM TO GO TO COMMITTEE
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – The United States House of Representatives Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee recently approved funding for Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System project. Project funding was approved for $3 million – a markup from the $1.8 million originally included in the President’s budget. However, the Senate last week approved $1.8 million for the project, which now means the funding will be discussed in the Conference Committee.
"Hopefully the results of the Conference Committee will concur with the markup made by the House Subcommittee," said Irv Pickler, President of the Joint Cooperative Committee for the Groundwater Replenishment System. "This is an important project for Southern California and additional federal funding will help the Groundwater Replenishment System better drought-proof the area in the future."
In the past, the GWR System project has been appropriated $37 million from the California State Water Bond and has received over $700,000 from the California Energy Commission, $500,000 from the EPA and $3.5 million from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Full design and preliminary construction have been approved for Phase I of the GWR System at an expected cost of $352 million at its completion in 2005. Phase I includes construction of a pipeline along the Santa Ana River, a water purification plant and expansion of a seawater intrusion barrier. Initial implementation of the water purification plant will provide 70,000 acre-feet* per year of a new, drought-proof water supply for Orange County. The GWR System will be located on the joint water campus of the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District in Fountain Valley, Calif.
The GWR System is a joint project of the Orange County Water District and Orange County Sanitation District. It will provide Orange County with a new source of purified water. The GWR System will take highly treated sewage from the Orange County Sanitation District, currently sent to the ocean, and purify it to near-distilled water quality through 100 percent microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection technologies. The water will then be injected into an underground seawater intrusion barrier and also percolated into the county’s groundwater basin by the Orange County Water District. Because the GWR System requires only half the electric power of importing water from Northern California, the GWR System not only improves the quality of our local water supply, but also saves electric energy.
For more information on the Groundwater Replenishment System, visit www.gwrsystem.com.
The Orange County Water District is a special water agency created by the California Legislature in l933 to maintain and manage the huge groundwater basin under northern Orange County. The groundwater basin managed by OCWD supplies 75% of the water needs to more than 2 million residents in the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington and Newport Beach, Irvine, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster and Yorba Linda.
Orange County Sanitation District is the third largest wastewater treatment system west of the Mississippi River, serving 2.2 million residents in northern and central Orange County.
For further information contact:
Ron Wildermuth, OCWD (714) 378-3351
Lisa Murphy, (714) 593-7120
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