Federal officials Tuesday announced $159 million in funding for a trio of Southern California water-resiliency projects, including nearly $100 million for an under-development water-recycling facility in Carson.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and Reps. Grace Napolitano and Nanette Barragán, both D-Los Angeles, made the announcement at the Carson facility that is named after Napolitano.
The Grace F. Napolitano Pure Water Southern California Innovation Center will receive $99.2 million of the funding announced Tuesday. Pure Water will take cleaned wastewater that is currently sent to the ocean and purify it to produce high-quality drinking water.
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According to the Metropolitan Water District, which is overseeing the project along with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, Pure Water will produce up to 150 million gallons of water daily, enough to serve the demands of more than 500,000 homes, officials said.
Purified water from the facility will be delivered through up to 60 miles of new pipe to the region's groundwater basins, industrial facilities and two of Metropolitan's water treatment plants.
"We know that it's only a matter of time until the next devastating drought, which is why we need every tool at our disposal to protect our region's precious water supplies," Padilla said in a statement. "Today's announcement, made possible by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments in large-scale water recycling projects, will help us build a more reliable, more resilient water supply in Southern California."
The legislators also announced $30 million for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Groundwater Replenishment Project. Another $30 million is being directed to the city of Ventura for its VenturaWaterPure Program.
"Adequate, resilient and safe water supplies are fundamental to the health, economy and security of our communities," U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner M. Camille Calimlim Touton said in a statement. "Investment in water recycling and reuse are key to stretching limited water supplies, making systems more resilient to the effects of aridification in the American West.
"Water recycling is an innovative and cost-effective tool that can help make our water supplies more reliable, helping communities find new sources to meet their needs today, but most importantly to meet our needs in the future."
According to MWD, the federal funds announced Tuesday will advance design work and improvements to existing infrastructure needed for the Pure Water project. Construction is expected to begin as soon as 2026 and the first water could be delivered in 2032.
"Purified recycled water isn't just a new supply of water, it is a climate-resilient one," MWD Board Chair Adán Ortega Jr. said. "That is precisely what we need as climate change challenges us with increasingly dramatic swings in weather, when every drought seems to be worse than the one before. Having a dependable supply of water, unaffected by the weather, will provide our communities a critical source of reliability. We are immensely grateful to our federal partners for their support."
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