el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014/eldonnews.org
DROUGHT
NEWS
Last week’s storm hardly helped the state’s record low water
supply. Experts explore alternatives as supplies dwindle.
BY JOSE SERVIN / el Don
County to prevent intrusion from ocean salt
water. Critics call it the Toilet to Tap program
California is still dry. Despite recent showers,
because of the use of sewer water, but this pro-
the level of rainfall is nine inches below aver-
cess is actually very clean, as proven by monthly
age in the fourth year of one of state’s worst
water quality tests.
droughts, leading cities to encourage and
Rebates and Restrictions
in some cases require residents to start
saving water.
Programs implemented by water suppliers in
Orange County provide rebates to people who
California receives an average of 15 inches of
purchase low-water-use toilets, efficient wash-
rain per year, but this year so far only four or
ing machines, and low-flow shower heads. There
so inches have fallen. This barely helps allevi-
are also rebates for people who replace their
ate the dry conditions, according to PRISM, a
green lawns with drought friendly, or zerophytic
climate group supported by the United States
plants. Restrictions include fines for watering
Department of Agriculture.
driveways and other forms of wasteful use.
seem unimportant, but the amount missing
Desalination
The private company Poseidon Water is cur-
from reservoirs, lakes, marinas and rivers is
rently building a desalination facility in north
staggering when low waterlines show the lack
San Diego County that will remove the salt from
of volume. Looked at another way, hydrologist
ocean water, clean it, and make it potable. While
Alan Nestlinger says that if spread across the
this process can make use of the abundance
Santa Ana College campus, those missing 11
of ocean water, it is extremely expensive when
inches of rainwater would fill 6,750 shipping
compared with other solutions, and produces
containers stacked 367 miles high.
less usable water.
Communities across the state are responding
by cutting back on water use.
This is what Orange County is doing to combat
the crisis:
“If we get longer drought periods, we’re going
to be forced to do desalination at some point,”
said Santa Ana College professor of geography
Bill Courter.
Groundwater Replenishment
A facility run by the Orange County Water
Desalination may be a long-term solution,
but the most direct response to the drought
District in Fountain Valley treats sewer water
remains reduced water usage by California busi-
and refills the water table underneath Orange
nesses and residents.
WATER SOURCE ALTERNATIVES
DESALINATION
San Diego-based Poseidon
Water is building a facility that
will separate salt from sea water. The process is more costly
than other methods.
TOILET TO TAP
Sewer water is treated, filtered
and funneled into the water
supply at the OCWD Fountain
Valley retention basin. Water
tests confirm its purity.
PARCHED / Lake San Antonio in Bradley, Calif. was
once a 16-mile lake in Monterey County. The lakebed
receded to about five miles by Sept. 2014. Another dry
year is leaving California’s farmers in an ever-tighter
bind./ ALLEN J. SCHABEN / TNS
el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014/eldonnews.org
A difference of a few inches of water may
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