This is the third award the project has received, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2002 Environmental Achieve-ment Award and the “1998 Planned Project of the Year” presented by the WateReuse Association of California. The Groundwater Replenishment System is being jointly planned and built by the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District.
The GWR System will produce water similar in quality to bottled water, by taking highly treated sewer water that is currently released into the ocean, and purifying it through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide advanced oxidation treatment. The purified water will become part of a seawater barrier and be pumped through a 13-mile pipeline to percolation ponds in Anaheim where it will seep into deep aquifers and blend with Orange County’s other sources of ground water, following the same natural filtering path rainwater takes through the ground.