OCWD's Green Acres Project (GAP) is a water recycling effort that provides reclaimed water for landscape irrigation at parks, schools and golf courses as well as for industrial uses, such as carpet dying. A recently completed reservoir allows the GAP to provide an additional 1,100 acre-feet per year (AFY) or 350 million gallons per year of recycled water for use in Orange County.

The reservoir provides the GAP with the additional storage required to operate the project around the clock and store excess water for peak demands during the night. Because most of the water is used at night for landscape irrigation, demands are low during the day.

Prior to the restoration of this reservoir, OCWD only had the capacity to store 1.3 million gallons of excess GAP water in an onsite underground reservoir at its headquarters in Fountain Valley. The total annual demand for GAP water is about 8,800 acre-feet per year (1 AF = 325,900 gallons).

Since 1991, the Green Acres Project has provided an alternate source of water to the cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Santa Ana. Current water users include Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa Golf Course and Home Ranch bean field. Due to a growing demand of water use in Orange County, it is sensible that whenever possible, recycled water be used for irrigation and industrial uses to free up higher quality potable water for household use.

OCWD purchased the reservoir from the City of Santa Ana. The Green Acres Project has the capacity to purify 7.5 million gallons per day of reclaimed water from the Orange County Sanitation District. The use of reclaimed water allows an equivalent amount of groundwater to be saved for household uses.