A desalination facility that's been around for more than 15 years will be getting bigger as California's drought wears on.
On Tuesday, Sweetwater Authority kicked off its $42 million expansion of the Richard Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility in Chula Vista, which means more local groundwater will be turned into drinking water.
The plant, built in 1999, produces five million gallons of drinking water a day. After the expansion, it will pump out 10 million gallons daily. The water comes from an aquifer.
“The importance here is two things: One thing is reliability bringing water from our own area, not bringing it from somewhere else,” said Ron Morrison, Sweetwater Board member and National City Mayor. “Using an available resource that was not being used. And the other thing is keeping price down.”
The water is treated using a reverse osmosis filtration process.
“The cost of this water is going to be quite a bit cheaper than imported water. It's locally controlled its drought proof. It's wonderful,” said Halla Razak, Director of Public Utilities for the city of San Diego.
The expansion is funded in part by grants from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the state of California. The city of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority will split the remaining costs for the project, which should be completed in late spring 2017.
Local
The Sweetwater Authority serves western and central Chula Vista, National CIty and Bonita.
