An Oceanside water purification facility in San Diego County, California, is the first wastewater treatment plant to go online.
A grand opening was held for Pure Water Oceanside, which turns wastewater into clean drinking water, reported NBC San Diego.
Recycled water is pumped into pipes and purified and then the treatment plant converts it to clean drinking water.
NBC San Diego reports that this is a $70 million project that took 10 years of planning and construction before going online. According to the City of Oceanside’s Water Utilities Director Cari Dale, the technology that made this process possible has been around for some time already.
According to Pure Water Oceanside, the water is imported and originates from hundreds of miles away, which is subject to rising costs and requires more energy to transport and is vulnerable to natural disasters.
“It’s been used all over the world and very close to us here, in Orange County,” said Dale, reported NBC San Diego. “It’s been used for over a decade.”
When the clean water leaves the facility it is injected into the Mission Basin, where it stays for up to six months and then is drawn out from the aquifer and treated again at the city's Mission Basin Groundwater Purification Facility, finally ready for consumption.
According to Dale, the new treatment plant will eventually create 3 to 5 million gallons per day (mgd) of local drinking water and could be ready for consumption by residents by the summer, reported NBC San Diego. and could reduce Oceanside’s reliance on imported water by an estimated 20%. If all goes according to plan, the clean water could be ready for residents by this summer.
