Water Treatment Plants

As a hedge against water shortages and population growth, Orange County has begun operating the world's largest, most modern reclamation plant -- a facility that can turn 70 million gallons of treated sewage into drinking water every day. The new purification system at the Orange County Water District headquarters in Fountain Valley cost about $490 million and comprises a labyrinth of pipes, filters, holding tanks and pumps across 20 acres.

Contra Costa County's plan to salvage more sewer and storm drain water for use at the Chevron refinery could save an extra 5 million gallons of drinking water each day, regional water officials said. A plant to be built on Chevron's property by next year would filter about 8 million gallons of wastewater daily for landscaping use. The county now channels about 3 million gallons of treated wastewater to the Chevron facility each day, with the remainder coming from fresh drinking water sources.

About 150,000 acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland would be taken out of irrigated crop production as part of a costly plan, initially funded by taxpayers, to deal with the problem of poorly drained cropland belonging to farmers on the valley's west side. The $2.

Days after the Metropolitan Water District asked residents and businesses to limit their water consumption while a key facility underwent a series of upgrades, consumers can now rest easy. The district's Robert B. Diemer Water Treatment Plant serving Orange County opened early Saturday, nearly a day ahead of schedule, after improvements were made to ensure the future availability of drinking water. The plant supplies 95% of the water used in south Orange County and half of the countywide total.

Lightning struck twice at a water plant that serves more than 750,000 people leaving some with little or no running water. United Water New Jersey told Harrington Park residents to boil water before consuming it and ordered them not to use any water for nonessential purposes. The plant, in Haworth, was struck Friday night and then again about midnight. The strikes cut power and hobbled the backup generators. Harrington Park is about 22 miles northwest of New York City.

A Superior Court judge has approved a deal allowing Santa Paula to pay the state a reduced fine for violations of its wastewater permit and to spend the millions saved on building a new treatment plant. City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said the semirural town of 29,000 would have faced bankruptcy if the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board had insisted on payment of more than $8.66 million in fines the city racked up through March.

This is the driest year on record in Los Angeles, yet the city's namesake river is defying nature with an abundant stream of water, which, miles to the south, has created a rare oceanside sanctuary for thousands of shorebirds. The source of this water: the bountiful wastewater of a parched city. Most Los Angeles River water is so-called recycled water, highly treated wastewater from upstream treatment plants that has no other place to go.

An explosion at a wastewater treatment plant that was undergoing hurricane repairs killed one worker and burned six others, two critically, authorities said in Daytona Beach. Employees of the city's Bethune Point Treatment Plant were on a metal roof with a blow torch near methanol and sodium sulfate tanks, said Lt. John King, a Fire Department spokesman. Eric Johnson, 59, was killed in the blast, authorities said.

The city of Ventura was fined more than $700,000 this week for continued failure to correct problems at its water reclamation facility, which discharges into the Santa Clara River. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board cited the city for 244 violations of the discharge permit for its wastewater treatment plant from February 2000 to July 2005. The city has 90 days to appeal. In announcing the fine, however, the board's executive officer emphasized the positive.

Water restrictions went into effect Saturday in foothill and valley communities north and east of Los Angeles as five days of planned renovations began at a major water treatment plant in La Verne. Residents and businesses in foothill areas and the San Gabriel, Walnut and Pomona valleys have been asked to use less water during the shutdown of the F.E. Weymouth Water Treatment Plant, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.