Water Works – What’s on Tap?

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR WATER COMES FROM?

Do you know there are lots of stages and processes that go into providing this precious resource? You may be among the many who take water for granted. While here in San Juan Capistrano, we are blessed to have creeks, streams, and wells (underground water) most of our water is purchased and imported from hundreds of miles away from the Colorado River or the State Water Project.

Why are we buying imported water despite record rainfall and abundant underground water? Remember those “stages and processes” from earlier? The answer is, in part, the complexity of getting water from its source to your home.

In the early 2000’s, following a trend, the city of San Juan Capistrano saw an opportunity to get into the water business given the availability of groundwater and the potential to generate more revenue for the city. In 2003, the city built the San Juan Capistrano (SJC) groundwater processing plant. But by 2021, given the complexity and demands of operating a water system, the city selected the nearby Santa Margarita Water District to provide water and sewer service to residents and businesses.

When SMWD took over, the inherited SJC groundwater processing plant had aged and was in disrepair (as was much of the water system in the city), so the district invested $7 million in infrastructure, repairs, upgrades, and maintenance during the first year. The District overall plan calls for investments of more than $20 million over the next five years. Earlier this year, the district devoted an additional $1.74 million investment when the roof of the plant’s clear well unexpectedly caved in. Although currently out of service, the SJC groundwater plant served over 2.5 million gallons of water daily at its peak, and when up and running after completion of the renovations, it will serve 5 million gallons of safe, high-quality drinking water every day.

Once the groundwater processing plant is back online (doubling the daily output of treated water), what is the internal process that takes place to ensure you receive safe high quality drinking water from your tap? Not surprisingly, it’s complicated.

While groundwater has fewer contaminants than surface water, you wouldn’t want to drink either without rigorous processing and testing. Processing includes removing rocks, sediment, and sand, as well as other impurities and such elements as iron, manganese, and arsenic. Once the water is cleaned up for use, SMWD conducts rigorous testing both before it’s provided to customers and all year long to ensure quality. While bottled water became popular in the 1970’s because of improvements in plastic bottling and the convenience it offers, the water from your tap today is purer because of the rigorous processing and adherence to government standards.

The good news is that the need to purchase and import so much of our water will be reduced when the SJC groundwater plant is fully functional again. SMWD will offer tours of the plant so the public can better appreciate the complexity of getting groundwater from wells, processing it, and supplying it to your home and business.

Water we up to next? Tap into the conversation and be on the lookout for upcoming articles on What a Hydrogeologist does; What’s filtered out of our water and what is added; How is sewage treated; How are water rates determined and; What is the “tiered rate structure?”