Efficiencies in Treatment and Reuse Define Clean Water
Hard against the Santa Ana River's concrete channel and an ever moving wave of urban encroachment in southern California, contractors working the first stages of Orange County Sanitation District's $3-billion wastewater treatment buildout are fighting labor shortages and material price increases while dealing with finicky neighbors. The owner, an amalgam of 25 municipalities and utility districts representing about two-thirds of the county, is relying on a revamped public-private management team to meet engineering, construction and financial goals using a custom program management system. So far, the team is achieving new levels of efficiency in delivery.
Almost 35 years after the Clean Water Act mandated that municipalities treat their wastewater to uniform levels of cleanliness, the service and business of treating those flows has evolved into a complex process balancing technological advances with a limited supply of money. In Orange County, an ever growing population and a tourist-sensitive economy forced a complete review of the region's water needs to produce a construction program that synchronizes wastewater treatment obligations with drinking water needs.