Padre Dam awarded $4.5 million in federal funds for water recycling expansion

Santee, Calif. — Padre Dam Municipal Water District was awarded $4.5 million from the Bureau of Reclamation’s Title XVI program.  Title XVI funding is available on a project-specific basis for the planning, design and construction of water recycling and reuse projects. Padre Dam will use the funding to expand the Ray Stoyer Water Recycling Facility and begin construction of the East County Advanced Water Purification Facility.

“Our Advanced Water Purification  Program could produce an additional 4,000 acre-feet of new potable water each year, reducing East County’s dependence on imported water, “ said Allen Carlisle, CEO and General Manager of Padre Dam. “Additionally, it reduces East County’s need to send our wastewater over 20 miles to the Point Loma Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Facility and decrease discharges to the ocean.”

Grant funding for the Advanced Water Purification Program, as of summer 2016, has reached $10.7 million. The State Water Resources Control Board awarded $6 million as part of Proposition 84 earlier this year, $200,000 was awarded from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for additional program testing and the most recent $4.5 million from the Title XVI U.S. Bureau of Reclamation funds.

In 2015, Padre Dam opened the East County Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Facility.  The demonstration facility takes recycled water from the Ray Stoyer Water Reclamation Facility and treats it using four advanced water purification steps. The end product is water so clean that it is near-distilled in quality. Padre Dam partnered with Helix Water District, City of El Cajon and the County of San Diego to expand the water purification program to enhance water reliability for all of East County. At full scale, this project could produce up to 30 percent of potable water for East County.

Visit www.eastcountyAWP.com for more information about the Advanced Water Purification Program and to tour the Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Facility.