House OKs Funds for Reclamation Project

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved spending $20 million to inject reclaimed water into the ground-water basin of the Oxnard Plain.

The Senate takes up the measure next week.

Under the reclamation project managed by the city of Oxnard and the Calleguas Municipal Water District, the city will reduce the amount of treated water it discharges into the ocean by pumping up to 15,000 acre-feet of treated water back into the ground, said Don Kendall, the water district’s general manager.

“We’re not the first to do this,” Kendall said. Orange County implemented a similar water reclamation plan several years ago, and a water district in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County is injecting reclaimed water into the ground from its El Segundo plant.

The $20 million in federal funding was part of a broader Reclamation, Recycling and Water Conservation Act coauthored by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). Total cost of the local project is about $80 million, and the remainder of the costs will be shared by the city and water district, Kendall said.

The city now discharges its secondary effluent--chlorine-treated waste water in which the solids have been separated to the bottom--into the ocean.

Studies on the reclamation program have been completed and phase one of the project--a reverse-osmosis treatment facility on Bard Road and a water-injection facility--could be up and running in about six months, Kendall said.

“This project will help us in our goal of drought-proofing Ventura County and hopefully we can all end up with enough water,” he said. The county also has the Freeman Diversion Project, which diverts local rainwater runoff back into the county’s underground water system, Kendall said.

This new project “will increase the reliability of water supplies from the basin and create a strong barrier to seawater intrusion,” Gallegly said.