Water options improve for thousands as treatment facility goes online at El Rio wellfield
Iron be gone. Manganese, away.
A $14.2 million groundwater treatment facility that scrubs iron and manganese from supplies at a wellfield in El Rio has switched on. The plant will improve drinking supplies for thousands of Ventura County residents, including families living at Naval Base Ventura County.
On Wednesday morning, officials and dignitaries celebrated the United Water Conservation District project at its El Rio facility at 3561 N. Rose Ave., north of Oxnard.
"This is going to be a project that will be very helpful in those drought times." said Mauricio Guardado Jr., United's general manager, during the event.
Wednesday's gathering marked completion of the plant's first phase after construction started around February 2022. The facility treats supplies pumped from deep wells.
The first phase will treat up to 3,500 gallons of groundwater per minute. Future phases can expand capacity to about 8,250 gallons per minute.
The treated water, with its lower concentrations of the metals, can be blended with water pumped from wells closer to the surface, where nitrate concentrations are high during a drought.
That blended water will allow use of up to 11,750 acre-feet of groundwater a year, district officials said. An acre-foot, which is about 326,000 gallons, generally supplies two or more average California households with their annual indoor and outdoor needs.
"To improve the water quality is such a gift," said Ventura County Supervisor Kelly Long, whose district includes the El Rio site.
The El Rio treatment plant was awarded an unusual military grant because the facility helps supply water to the naval base, at both the Port Hueneme and Point Mugu locations. The Department of Defense provided $4.2 million.
The California Department of Water Resources provided another $2.5 million in state grant funds.
United's El Rio wellfield helps supply water to about 250,000 county residents. Treated water from the new plant will aid residents of the Navy base, four small mutual water companies that serve the El Rio area and the cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme.
A pipeline from the El Rio facility will carry the blended water to Oxnard and to the Port Hueneme Water Agency, which will distribute it to the Navy base.
United doesn't directly supply residential customers, but its groundwater is used by the cities of Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme. The district also provides surface water and groundwater to many large agricultural users.
Headquartered in Oxnard, United encompasses about 214,000 acres that straddle the Santa Clara River from Lake Piru to the coast. The district owns and operates Santa Felicia Dam, which created Lake Piru — a reservoir — and multiple facilities along the river, including the Freeman Diversion Dam near Saticoy.
Multiple agencies and elected officials supported the groundwater treatment facility, including local, state and federal representatives, Navy base personnel and the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency.
Staff writer Brian Varela contributed to this report.
Gretchen Wenner is the breaking news and city editor at the Star. She can be reached at gretchen.wenner@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Water options improve as treatment plant goes online in El Rio
