West Construction NewsBest Projects2013

Award of Merit, Water/Environment, S. California: Anaheim Water Recycling Demo Project

Anaheim Water Recycling Demonstration Project, Anaheim

Photo by Mark Bradley

The facility was located just 20 ft from the Anaheim City Hall and near a major business district.

Capable of recycling 100,000 gallons of water per day, the project diverts raw sewage from a large pipeline and treats it using a membrane bioreactor, followed by ozonation and UV irradiation so that the water can be used for irrigation and toilet flushing in nearby commercial buildings. The facility aims to illustrate how urban developers can carry out similar low-impact projects in any location, even in the smallest footprint. As the ultimate test to prove that water can be treated with no noise and no odor, the facility was located just 20 ft from the Anaheim City Hall and near a major business district. Other project highlights include the use of stormwater infiltration wells, rain barrels, drought-tolerant landscape and porous concrete walkways.

Key Players

Contractor USS Cal Builders Inc., Stanton

Owner City of Anaheim

Lead Design MWH, Irvine

Civil/MEP Engineer MWH, Irvine

Architect Thirtieth Street Architects, Newport Beach

Geotechnical Engineer Hushmand Associates, Irvine

Blair leads day-to-day operations of the ENR editorial team to ensure brand quality and further best practices. He spearheads ENR's various competitions, including Best Projects and the Award of Excellence, and organizes editorial content at events including the Top Young Professionals conference. A Jesse H. Neal, Construction Media Alliance and AZBEES-award-winning writer and videographer, Blair frequently contributes to ENR’s burgeoning video channel with project tour videos and interviews with industry leaders. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator on topics such as diversity and inclusion, design and jobsite technology, construction means and methods and marketing.

Post a comment to this article

Live: June 11, 2026 at 1:00 pm CDT Fleet operations generate a massive amount of data. The real challenge is breaking down silos to turn complex metrics into a clear roadmap for smarter, faster decision making. In this webinar, we move past basic tracking to show you how the right data identifies hidden vulnerabilities and stops wasteful spending.