EMWD opens third desalination facility
California’s Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) celebrated the opening of its new groundwater desalination facility, which will provide additional local water supply reliability to its service area for future generations.
The Perris II Desalination Facility is EMWD’s third groundwater desalter and will provide enough water for more than 15,000 households each year through its reverse osmosis treatment process. The facility is located in Menifee, adjacent to the existing Menifee I and Perris I desalters.
“This is a historic day for EMWD and for the residents we serve,” says EMWD Board President Phil Paule. “As we continue to face water supply challenges throughout California, this facility will further ensure that our area is prepared to meet the needs of our customers through investments in local water supply sources.”
The Perris II Desalter was funded in part by approximately $22.5 million in grant funding from the State Water Resources Control Board through Proposition 1, the 2014 voter-approved water bond.
“This facility and other projects funded by Prop 1 — together with Governor Newsom’s historic, three year, $5.2 billion investment in California water systems enacted last year, and the billions in funding coming from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — provide us with a generational opportunity to transform our state’s water system to meet the 21st century challenges of a changing climate,” says Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board.
Additional funding and in-kind support was provided by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which provided $10.8 million toward the construction of wells to support the new facility; the California Department of Water Resources; United States Bureau of Reclamation; Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority; and The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Following the treatment process and removal of salts from the groundwater, the brine concentrate is placed into the Inland Empire Brine Line, where it is ultimately discharged into the Pacific Ocean.
EMWD’s groundwater desalination program will remove approximately 65,000 tons of salt each year from the groundwater basin, helping to provide long-term improvements to water quality in the basin.
“As California is in the middle of a historic drought, this facility comes on at a perfect time to continue to maximize our local resources,” Paule says. “But just as important, it provides our region with the long-term benefits of a local and reliable water source that will benefit future generations.