New Purification Plant Answers California's Water Crisis

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California -- As Southern California faces a worsening water crisis, Orange County has implemented a $480 million microfiltration system so advanced it can turn waste water into drinking water. The Groundwater Replenishment System, which started pumping purified water on Jan. 10th, is the largest of its kind in the world and will provide water to more than 100,000 Orange County families for the same or less than buying it wholesale. And because sewage is diverted to the purification system, less waste is dumped into natural water supplies.

The new plant is likely to be the first of many as other cities in California, Texas and Florida consider similar plans. Read on as we follow the filtration process on 70 million gallons a day from beginning to end, where it's pumped into the Orange County basin aquifer.

Left: Low-pressure inline pumps (the blue and orange objects at ground level) move treated sewage through microfilters. The stainless steel pipes are cleaned with citric acid weekly.

Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired