CARSON, CA, Nov. 24, 2008 -- What do West Basin Municipal Water District, Iraq and Google all have in common? All of these organizations have a 100 billion unit story to tell. Speculators believe Iraq has 100 billion barrels of oil in reserves; Google has a goal of indexing 100 billion web pages; and West Basin Municipal Water District has just produced its 100 billionth gallon of recycled sewer water!
Since 1995, West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) has been recycling treated sewer water at its Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility in El Segundo. The facility recycles treated sewer water that would have gone into Santa Monica Bay and converts it into 5 different types of usable, "designer" water for its customers.
West Basin makes recycled water for both high and low pressure boiler feeds, cooling towers and irrigation. It also makes near-distilled quality water for injection into local seawater barriers, a series of injection wells along the coast to prevent ocean water from contaminating local groundwater supplies. The National Water Research Institute and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have designated West Basin's recycling facility a National Center for Water Treatment Technologies, one of only six in the country.
"The 100 billionth gallon of recycled water is a great achievement and could not have come at a better time," said Donald L. Dear, President of the West Basin Board of Directors. "We are in the middle of a 'perfect drought' -- a water crisis caused by environmental restrictions, record-dry weather and continued population growth. Every drop of water we recycle is a drop of drinking water for one's home or business."
West Basin produces 35 million gallons of recycled water a day, and gets its highly treated wastewater from the Los Angeles Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant.
West Basin plans to recycle even more wastewater in the future through the launch of its Water Reliability 2020 Program, in which it will double its recycling and conservation programs, expand its education program and begin converting ocean water to drinking water, all by 2020. The plan will reduce our area's dependence on water imported from northern California and the Colorado River from today's 66% down to 33%, and improve local control and reliability of our future water supplies.
West Basin's water recycling plant is the only plant in the world to produce 5 different types of recycled water from sewer water. West Basin has a network of 70 miles of purple pipes to move recycled water throughout the South Bay and keep it separate from drinking water. West Basin also plans to expand its piping system to 130 miles to allow for the doubling of our water recycling program by 2020.
West Basin is currently working with more than 200 sites that use irrigation or recycled water. They include Chevron, ExxonMobil, and bp refineries; Honda, Toyota, Goodyear and other businesses; cities, parks and golf courses. West Basin has received numerous awards for its water recycling program.
Factoids:
• If you were to take 100 billion 1-gallon jugs of water and put them end to end, they would go around the earth's equator 760 times!
• 100 billion gallons of water will fill the Rose Bowl about 1,200 times
• 100 billion gallons weighs more than 8,500 Empire State Buildings (365,000 tons)
>> Take a virtual tour of West Basin's recycled water process
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