Did you know City Hall has a dedicated call center to answer your questions? One question we recently received is: How do new State rules about recycling sewage into potable water affect HB’s drinking water?                           

Answer: The new State rules do not affect the City’s water supply at this time.

The City’s wastewater is already being recycled and distributed via “indirect” potable reuse.  The City’s wastewater is collected and transported to the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) treatment facility in Fountain Valley.  There, the recycled water is sent to Anaheim to percolate back into the underground aquifer with oversight from the Orange County Water District (OCWD), the special district that manages the Orange County Groundwater Basin.

Drinking recycled water is nothing new in Orange County as OCWD has been a world-renowned leader in indirect potable reuse for more than 15 years with its Groundwater Replenishment System. The OCWD Groundwater Replenishment System treats all reclaimable wastewater received by the OCSD (including sewage from the City of Huntington Beach) to drinking water standards after which it can be recharged into the local groundwater basin.  The groundwater basin provides storage and additional natural treatment as the water slowly migrates to wells owned by north Orange County cities and retail water districts. These agencies pump the water out of the groundwater basin, disinfect it and pump it into their potable water distribution systems.

Converting the OCWD Groundwater Replenishment System to a direct potable reuse project would be expensive and inefficient requiring additional systems to provide even further treatment, monitoring, and storage before it could be pumped directly into potable water systems.  These additional treatment systems would require large amounts of land to construct and would be expensive to operate and maintain.  Additionally, a new large-scale distribution system could need to be constructed in numerous streets to transport this water to various potable water systems.

At this time, the new state regulations providing for and allowing direct potable reuse of treated wastewater ( or treated “sewage”) will have no direct impact to Huntington Beach nor the OCWD Groundwater Replenishment System.

If you have a question for the City’s helpline, please call 714.536.5511.