Still Not a Drop From County’s One-of-a-Kind Waterworks

Mesa Consolidated Water District officials are proud of their colored-water treatment plant, the only one in Orange County. There’s just one problem: Nine months after it was supposed to come on-line, it has yet to deliver even a glass of water to its customers.

For a variety of reasons, the $13.1-million plant in Costa Mesa for cleaning off-color well water has failed to pass the mandatory test of operating for seven days straight.

Water district officials had high hopes last week, when the plant stayed up and running for five days.

But once again the engines went quiet, the water rushing through the pipes stopped, and officials let out a collective groan. This time it was an order from the county to temporarily stop discharging into storm drains, a precaution against beach pollution that water officials considered unnecessary.

“We were almost there,” grumbled Trudy Ohlig-Hall, president of the district board.

Shutdowns at the plant, which is supposed to treat 5 million gallons of water daily, have been caused by one glitch after another. First it was the valves, then the electrical system.

District officials say trouble-shooting a new facility is difficult but that most of the problems have been minor. Other experts say such start-up problems are typical and don’t necessarily indicate major problems.

“We just have to be patient,” Ohlig-Hall said.

District officials say the plant will be worth the wait because it will allow them to tap 10 to 16 million gallons of colored water 600 to 1,200 feet underground.

Although such water is safe to drink, it doesn’t sit well with consumers. It has mixed with decomposing organic material, is the color of weak tea and can smell like rotten eggs.

The plant will remove the materials with a carbon filtration system and ozone treatments.

That is, once it’s up and running.

Water agencies throughout the country treat colored water.

But because Orange County has used relatively progressive water management tactics, the region had little need to tap the colored water supply until recently, water experts say.

As more people move to Orange County, however, the underground supply of clear water is becoming depleted. At the same time, supplies from traditional sources like the Colorado River have become more expensive.

By tapping the colored water, the district would be able to stabilize its costs, officials say. It takes about $380 to treat an acre-foot of colored water, compared with $435 to import the same amount, said Jerry Baldwin, water operations manager for the district.

An acre-foot of water is about enough to supply two average families for a year.

The Irvine Ranch Water District plans to open a colored-water treatment plant next year.

“Our future is not more fresh water coming down off mountains toward us or finding new aquifers. . . . Stuff like [colored-water treatment] is our future,” said Bill Blomquist, an associate professor at Indiana University.

While Mesa district officials are clearly pleased that their plant is a first in the county, they admit the testing period has been frustrating.

The seven-day testing period will begin anew sometime next month.

If it’s successful, officials hope to start putting treated colored water into the system shortly thereafter.

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Deep Water Treatment

When it starts working, a new water treatment plant will tap into a large pool of lower-quality water that lies deep within county’s aquifer. The plant would remove the organic material that makes the water smelly and amber-colored.

Clear water resides in upper areas of aquifer

Colored water is in the middle region (between 600 and 1,200 feet underground)

Source: Mesa Consolidated Water District