East County Advanced Water Purification Project
Borrower: East County Advanced Water Purification Joint Powers Authority
Location: San Diego County, California
WIFIA Loan Amount: $388 million
Total WIFIA Project Costs: $791 million
Total WIFIA Project Costs: $791 million
Population Served by Project: 100,000 people
Number of Jobs Created: 2,532 jobs
Project Description
The Advanced Water Purification Project will create a new, local, sustainable drinking water source in a water-stressed area, reducing the region’s dependence on imported water and increasing climate resilience. The project treats East County’s wastewater locally for reuse by producing purified water that is sent to the Lake Jennings Reservoir, the county’s local drinking water supply source, for surface water augmentation. The project will treat up to 16 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater and produce purified water to meet up to 30 percent of East County’s drinking water demand.
Project Benefits
- Reduces the region’s reliance on energy-intensive and increasingly drought-stressed imported water.
- Increases system resiliency by providing a new source of local, reliable, and sustainable drinking water.
- Reduces wastewater discharges into the Pacific Ocean while lowering the area’s wastewater service cost.
- Saves the Authority an estimated $140 million from financing with a WIFIA loan.
- Re-execution of the WIFIA loan in 2021 saves East County ratepayers an additional $61 million.