Camarillo's next wave of water unveiled with long-awaited desalter facility

Camarillo's long-awaited desalter plant will soon begin treating previously unusable groundwater to convert into drinkable water for residents and businesses.

The city unveiled the $66.3 million North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter, located at 2727 Somis Road, at a ribbon cutting before a crowd of about 100 people on Tuesday.

The desalter will begin trickling water into the city's water supply in April, slowly increasing its output until its providing 3.4 million gallons of potable water per day, according to Lucie McGovern, Camarillo deputy public works director and project manager.

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First, the city needs to ensure the filters are operating properly and gain final approval from the state to begin distributing water to ratepayers. McGovern anticipates the facility to be fully operational by the summer.

"We still have to test the waters," Camarillo Mayor Charlotte Craven said at the event. "Flood gates opened. A tidal wave of prerequisites surged through, and the 27-year trudge continued with an ocean of start up requirements.”

The reverse osmosis desalter will tap into about 6 million gallons of brackish groundwater a day from the Calleguas Creek watershed, removing iron and manganese, McGovern said. The desalter will then produce about 3.4 million gallons of potable water, enough to fill about 200 backyard swimming pools, she said. That equals about 40% of Camarillo's overall water supply.

By reducing the city’s dependence on imported water from Northern California, Camarillo expects to save about $50 million over 20 years, McGovern said. As a result, any future water rate increases will be lower than if the desalter were never constructed, she said.

The remaining brine leftover from the treatment process will be discharged into the ocean by Port Hueneme, according to city documents.

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In the last two decades, water levels in the Pleasant Valley Groundwater Basin have risen by 200 feet, but the accumulation of salt has resulted in a mound of unusable groundwater, according to the documents.

Filtering the brackish groundwater and removing it from the soil will also enhance the local watershed for municipal and agricultural use, according to the documents.

Camarillo had anticipated importing 70% of its water supply by 2035, but with the desalter facility tapping into local groundwater, the city will only need to import 25% of its water supply, according to city documents.

McGovern said there is about 600,000 acre-feet of brackish groundwater available, though the desalter will process about 4,500 acre-feet of that groundwater each year.

"Even if we pumped it at its full capacity for 25 years, we would still have groundwater underneath,” McGovern said.

The total cost of the desalter, including designs, constriction and purchase of the 5-acre site at Los Posas Road and Lewis Road, is estimated at $66.3 million, according to a statement from the city. About $26.4 million was funded through federal and state grants. The remaining costs were covered with existing water enterprise funds and revenue bond issuance, according to the statement.

The city awarded a five-year operating contract of the facility to Inframark LLC in January, but the city had been planning for the facility for years.

Since the 1990s, the city has been trying to tap into a build up of brackish groundwater. The momentum for the project increased in 2008 when the Regional Water Quality Control Board set maximum salt levels for the watershed and threatened to impose monthly fines of up to $10,000 until the issue was addressed.

There were multiple causes for the project's lengthy timeline, McGovern said. City staff had to keep gaining support from incoming elected officials, seeking permission from varies state and regional regulatory boards and securing the funds for the everchanging expenses.

"I'm just glad to see it happen," McGovern said. "Now the next milestone is just serving that water.”

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Camarillo's next wave of water unveiled with desalter facility opening