The twin membrane-bioreactor plants planned for the communities of Apple Valley and Hesperia on the edge of the Mojave desert east of Los Angeles, USA, have received US$ 1.5 million funding from the California Department of Water Resources.
Officials from the Mojave Water Agency and the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority (VVWRA) announced the grant on 30 September 2013.
The plants will be able to recycle 1 MGD (3,785 m³/d) each when built, and have the potential in the future to recycle up to 4 MGD (15,140 m³/d) — equivalent to the potable water usage of nearly 9,000 High Desert homes.
The projects have already received US$ 2 million in federal grant money from the Bureau of Reclamation and are applying for an additional US$ 3 million in the next few months.
“The recycled water supplied by these plants is a vital drought-proof resource that will further bolster the Victor Valley’s water supply needs far into the future,” said Logan Olds, VVWRA’s general manager. “The fact that we’re wasting millions of gallons of precious drinking water every year to irrigate landscaping is a practice that simply cannot continue, especially in a desert.”