Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/850954
E n s u r i n g a S t r o n g F u t u r e 27 | P a g e Potable Reuse California is in a constant drought cycle and faces ongoing water shortages in the future. It is critical that the District take measures to mitigate its dependence on imported water as those supplies become limited and more costly. The District also faces significant rate increases on the wastewater side. In the very possible event that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Regional Water Quality Control Board will not grant the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant a waiver in the future, the plant would need to convert to secondary which would be very expensive. In response, the District has embarked on an innovative Potable Reuse project to address both water and wastewater concerns. Potable reuse is the purposeful use of recycled water made from wastewater to augment drinking water supplies. The District is seeking an indirect form of Potable reuse, which involves the use of advanced treatment technology in combination with environmental buffers to ensure that all necessary public health requirements are met to allow the water to be used as a drinking water supply. The District is the lead agency for the East County Advanced Water Purification (AWP) Program, a partnership between four water and wastewater agencies in East San Diego County: Padre Dam, Helix Water District, City of El Cajon, and County of San Diego. The AWP Program aims to reduce ocean discharge by offloading flows to the Metro System and produce up to 30% of East County's potable water supply. The Program will be funded primarily by Padre Dam, the East County partnering agencies and various loans and grants. The overarching goals of the Program are for the cost of sewer treatment to be less expensive than the services provided by Metro, the cost of the AWP water to be less expensive in the long term than water purchased from CWA, and for the agencies to become more independent.