What is Pure Water?

Pure Water is the product of a process called potable reuse, a water supply strategy now adopted by many cities and water agencies in California and across the United States, to provide local and reliable water supplies.

Potable Reuse is the process of using purified wastewater for drinking water. There are two types of potable reuse:

• Indirect potable reuse: Uses an environmental buffer, such as a lake, river, or a groundwater aquifer, before the water is treated at a drinking water treatment plant.
• Direct potable reuse: Involves the treatment and distribution of water without an environmental buffer.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency provides more detail on their website.

What is the Pure Water Project?

The Las Virgenes-Triunfo Joint Powers Authority (JPA) was established to cooperatively treat wastewater for these two bordering areas that share the Malibu Creek watershed at the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility (TWRF). Since 1965, the recycled water produced by the TWRF has been used for irrigation during summer months; however, surplus recycled water is discharged to Malibu Creek in winter months.

The Pure Water Project Las Virgenes Triunfo takes surplus recycled water from the TWRF – which has already been treated in a multi-phase process, including filtration and disinfection – and delivers it to a new, state-of-the-art Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF). The AWPF uses membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light with advanced oxidation to purify the recycled water to meet or exceed drinking water standards set by the State of California. This process is currently being piloted and demonstrated at the Pure Water Project Demonstration Facility.

That purified water is then delivered to the Las Virgenes Reservoir, where it will be blended with water imported from Northern California, where all of our water currently originates. Pure Water Project Las Virgenes-Triunfo is indirect potable reuse as it uses the Las Virgenes Reservoir as an “environmental buffer” before the water is cleaned a final time at the Westlake Filtration Plant.

How do we make this project a reality?

There is significant infrastructure investment needed to construct the treatment facility and conveyance pipelines. A new pipeline delivers recycled water from TWRF to the new Advanced Water Purification Facility. The purified water is then distributed through a new pipeline to Las Virgenes Reservoir where it blends with the existing imported water already in storage. All reservoir water is retreated to drinking water standards at the Westlake Filtration Plant before it is safely delivered to homes and businesses. A method for brine disposal is also included.

Why Pure Water?

The Las Virgenes – Triunfo Joint Powers Authority (JPA), who operates the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility (TWRF), has been directed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board to improve the health of the Malibu Creek Watershed. This responsibility falls to the JPA because the TWRF currently discharges surplus recycled water into Malibu Creek.

Compliance with standards has proven to be expensive for customers due to increased sewage treatment rates, yet the creek and  the species that live there are still not fully protected. The Las Virgenes – Triunfo JPA has expressed its commitment to creek stewardship, but with common sense solutions to water quality and supply issues.

As part of a robust, 18-month stakeholder participation process, the Las Virgenes – Triunfo JPA evaluated a number of options to beneficially use this “surplus” recycled water so that it will not need to be discharged into the creek. The top option analyzed was indirect potable reuse using advanced purification followed by discharge to the Las Virgenes Reservoir. This preferred alternative was selected by the JPA Board of Directors on August 1, 2016.

What is the benefit of the Pure Water Project?

The project will address two major challenges facing the community: it improves local water supply reliability and drought resilience, and it will effectively eliminate discharges to Malibu Creek, a current practice that is not sustainable.

The project will also provide customers of the Las Virgenes-Triunfo service area with access to a renewable, affordable, and sustainable source of water. Advanced water purification uses the latest, proven technologies to produce pure, high-quality water that can be blended with existing sources and placed in the drinking water system.

This “new supply” of locally produced water will have the following advantages:

• Cost competitive with imported water
• Stabilizes water rates
• Safeguards the local economy
• Significantly reduces the uncertainty of water supply associated with importing water due to climate change and natural disasters such as earthquakes and long-term drought conditions.

Given current California drought conditions, incorporating purified recycled water use into the local supply portfolio, along with other water supply solutions, helps bolster the water supply and improves drought resiliency. 

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