Reuse milestone for West Basin district

West Basin Municipal Water District (WBMWD) in California, USA, produced its 100 billionth gallon of reused wastewater in November 2008.

Since 1995, WBMWD has been recycling treated wastewater at its Edward C Little water recycling facility in El Segundo. The facility reuses treated sewage effluent that would have gone into Santa Monica Bay and converts it into 5 different types of usable water for its customers.

It provides 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.

West Basin produces 35 MGD (132,000m³/d) of recycled water, getting its highly treated wastewater from the Los Angeles Hyperion treatment plant. The National Water Research Institute and US Bureau of Reclamation have designated WBMWD’s recycling facility a National Center for Water Treatment Technologies, one of only six in the country.

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 from 66% down to 33% its area’s dependence on water imported from northern California and the Colorado River, and improve local control and reliability of future water supplies.