The Groundwater Replenishment System (GWR) in Orange County, Calif., will receive an additional $2.5 million in federal funding for fiscal 2002. The funding comes from an appropriations bill signed into law last year by President Bush. The GWR System will provide Orange County with a source of safe, pure water to serve up to 200,000 families each year.

System officials said the water will be used to increase an existing underground water barrier, which helps prevent seawater from intruding into the ground water basin, and will also be naturally filtered into the underground storage basin by the Orange County Water District.