Using Reclaimed Water to Block Seawater
Sometimes a headline does not reflect the content of a news article, and this is certainly the case regarding the front page headline “Orange County May Use Sewage as Barrier to Seawater” (July 31).
The Orange County Water District has never and will never inject sewage into the ground water basin to repel salt water. In addition, the district has been injecting a two-thirds reclaimed, one-third deep well water blend into the ground water basin for the past 15 years, meeting all drinking water requirements.
The district’s current proposal is to merely eliminate the blending requirement with deep well water and replace it with highly treated reclaimed water. This reclaimed water bears no resemblance to sewage from a water quality standpoint. The district will be utilizing an extensively treated and closely monitored water resource that meets all drinking water requirements.
This water, at a cost of about $600 an acre-foot, produced by the sanitation districts of Orange County and the Orange County Water District, has lost all sewage characteristics to a point that it is comparable qualitatively to imported water from the Colorado River and the Sierras. Any statement to the contrary, or reference to this as sewage, is incorrect and very misleading.
WILLIAM R. MILLS JR.
General Manager
Orange County Water District
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