United Water announced on 25 August 2009 the signing of a new five-year agreement with the West Basin Municipal Water District in California, USA, to operate and maintain the district’s Edward C Little water recycling plant and four satellite facilities, which together comprise the largest water-reuse operation of its kind in the United States.
Tony Harding, chairman of United Water, said, “We have been partners for 15 years in an effort to preserve potable water supplies in southern California. In fact earlier this year we celebrated a milestone together by reaching the 100 billion gallons of recycled water served mark, since the inception of the program in 1995.”
The Edward C Little Water Recycling Facility has the capacity to produce 50 MGD (190,000 m³/d) of recycled water for use in a wide variety of commercial, industrial and irrigation applications. The plant can also produce up to 12.5 MGD (47,000 m³/d) of barrier water for use in protecting South Bay’s coastal groundwater reservoirs against saltwater intrusion from the Pacific Ocean.
Edward C Little, president of West Basin’s board of directors, said, “Our first priority together will be to continue to work towards replacing half of the region’s imported potable water with recycled water to ease the demand for a scarce water supply from Northern California and the Colorado River. Since our supply is dependent on two imported sources, water conservation and water recycling have become a way of life in Southern California. That’s all the more reason for us to use and reuse water wisely.”