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March 20, 2007
WATER LIMITED IN ORANGE COUNTY
DURING CONSTRUCTION WORK AT LOCAL TREATMENT
PLANT
Residents, businesses urged to
aggressively conserve water
during week-long facility shutdown
Residents and businesses throughout Orange County are being asked
to aggressively reduce their water use while a major regional water
treatment plant undergoes upgrades during a week-long shutdown beginning
Sunday, March 25.
Officials
from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Municipal Water
District of Orange County joined local water agencies in making the water-saving
request as Metropolitan prepares for the planned shutdown of its Robert B.
Diemer Water Treatment Plant, located in Yorba Linda, through Saturday, March
31.
Metropolitan’s Diemer plant is the primary source of imported
treated drinking water to communities served by MWDOC, as well as
the cities of Anaheim, Fullerton and Santa Ana. The plant
provides about 95 percent of south Orange County’s potable
water needs via two regional water pipelines.
“Although
some water agencies in south Orange County will institute mandatory restrictions
during this shutdown, most agencies in north Orange County will have groundwater
supplies to call upon to meet retail demands,” said Debra C. Man, Metropolitan’s
chief operating officer. “As a precaution, however, we’re
asking all consumers in the region to voluntarily conserve water whenever and
wherever possible.”
To
minimize impacts on consumers, Metropolitan routinely schedules operational
shutdowns of its water-treatment facilities during the winter months, when
temperatures are typically cooler and demands are lower.
“All
Orange County water providers have prepared for months to ensure their customers
have sufficient supplies during this planned shutdown,” said Kevin P.
Hunt, general manager of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, which
manages the water supply the county receives from Metropolitan.
"However, we are asking residents
and businesses to help us in our
effort to maximize the amount of
water we have on-hand while the
Diemer plant is out of service,” he
continued.
Curtailing landscape irrigation,
which consumes approximately 60
percent of all water used in Orange
County, is perhaps the easiest
way to conserve throughout the
week, Hunt said. Other outdoor
water-saving practices include
sweeping down driveways and walkways.
The Diemer
plant shutdown is part of $155 million in construction under way at the facility
to improve the plant’s treatment processes and modify chemical handling
capabilities, said Eddie Rigdon, Metropolitan’s water system operations
manager. Projects include site work and relocation of existing facilities
in preparation for adding a new ozone disinfection system. Work at the
plant is expected to continue through 2011.
“Maintaining and improving our ability to store, process and deliver
drinking water throughout Southern California requires periodic curtailments
in deliveries while the work is being done,” Rigdon said.
MWDOC’s
Hunt said voluntary water conservation by consumers, combined with activation
of system interconnections between water agencies, will offer added safeguards
to help ensure that residents and businesses have adequate water during the
shutdown. The cooperating agencies, however, stand prepared to intensify
the conservation request should locally stored supplies dwindle during the
outage.
For more water-saving tips visit www.bewaterwise.com. Information
about special water-savings rebates
available to Orange County residents
and businesses is available on www.mwdoc.com. Click
on Rebate Programs. |