User:Power2 H2O/Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan
In 2019 the Metropolitan Water District played a crucial role in the development of the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). The Drought Contingency Plan aims to implement legislation to reduce the risk of declining levels in the Colorado River reservoirs, particularly by incentivizing agencies to store additional water in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. In 2018, the Imperial Water District elected to not execute the DCP and the Metropolitan Water District agreed to provide the full portion of water storage contributions to Lake Mead. By the end of 2020, MWD will have nearly stored 1 million acre-feet in Lake Mead and contributing to 12 feet of Lake Mead's elevation.

Regional Recycled Water Program
In partnership with the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County and the Metropolitan Water District, The Regional Recycled Water Program will introduce purified and treated wastewater that will replenish groundwater basins across Los Angeles and Orange Counties that aims to potentially accommodate direct potable reuse demands in the near future. The program includes 60 miles of new pipelines to convey the treated water across four regional groundwater basins, an industrial facility, and two MWD treatment plants (figure ...).

The program calls for a water treatment facility that would be the one of the largest in the nation, producing 150 million gallons per day or 168 thousand acre-feet per year of purified water However, before the full-scale facility is developed, a 0.5 million gallon per day demonstration facility, The Advanced Purification Center, in Carson will take its place and vigorously test, treat, and operate to ensure the highest quality standards of wastewater treatment are met prior to the development of the new facility. The construction and application of a membrane bioreactors in the demonstration facility cost nearly $17 million dollars and the total cost of building the full-scale program will be $3.4 billion, resulting in an annual operation cost of $129 million, and water cost of $1,830 per acre-foot. The full scale treatment facility would serve 500,000 homes daily and deliver a purified source of water to the four regional groundwater basins: Central, West Coast, Main San Gabriel, and Orange County (report).