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By Kendra Ablaza, Staff Writer

January 30, 2013 - An expansion of a water treatment center that protects South Los Angeles County’s water supply from seawater broke ground Monday.

Congressman Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) and Water Replenishment District (WRD) officials led the groundbreaking ceremony at the Leo J. Vander Lans Advanced Water Treatment Facility in Long Beach. The facility treats recycled water from the Long Beach Water Reclamation plant and uses microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet advanced oxidation to produce near-distilled quality water. The project updates the facility to hold 2.6 billion gallons per year—more than double the amount of recycled water produced by the facility.

“The advanced treated recycled water from an expanded Vander Lans plant will be used to protect our groundwater and drinking water supplies from seawater contamination,” WRD Board President Albert Robles said in a statement. “This project is part of the district’s Water Independence Now project, which represents WRD’s vision to be independent of imported water and for our groundwater basins to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. With this project, WRD will have a reliable and safe source of water that’s locally available.”

According to the WRD website, the facility produces 2.7 million gallons of near-distilled quality water daily, which is blended with imported water and pumped into the Alamitos Seawater Barrier to prevent seawater from contaminating underground water basins. The WRD currently buys nearly 1 billion gallons of water imported from Northern California or the Colorado River every year to keep the barrier in tact, officials said.

For more information about the Water Replenishment District, visit http://www.wrd.org.