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Chapter 10: A Long-term Commitment to Reliability
plant in the world. It can treat up to 100 million
gallons of
water per day, enough water for
al
most 1 million people each year. The plant’s
location allows treated water to flow by gravity
to the distribution system, without using the
energy needed for pumping. Membrane tech-
nology mechanically separates contaminants –
including virus-
es and bacteria
– from water
molecules.
The process is
so efficient that
virtually every
drop of raw
water entering
the plant
leaves as high-
quality drinking
water.
As the Twin
Oaks Valley
Water Treat-
ment Plant took shape, another remarkable
project was advancing in the southeastern cor-
ner of the state: lining two major canals that run
through Riverside and I
mperial counties. As
part of the Colorado River Quantification
Settlement Agreement of 2003, the Water
Authority secured the right to conserved water
from lining the All-American and Coachella
canals – approxi
mately 80,000 acre-feet per
year for 110 years. The Water Authority helped
construct approxi
mately 58 miles of concrete-
lined canals adjacent to the existing earthen
channels. That reduced the amount of canal
water that seeped into
the ground, making the
conserved water avail-
able for use in San
Diego County. The
Coachella project was
finished in 2006 and the
All-American Canal lining
was completed in 2010,
giving the San Diego
region an invaluable and
highly reliable new
source of supply.
But work still
wasn’t
done in San Diego
County – not by a long
shot. While looking for ways to opti
mize the
region’s water-delivery system,
Water Authority
engineers realized the potential to link the new
Olivenhain Reservoir with the existing Lake
Hodges just to the east. Not only would con-
necting the lakes by a pipeline facilitate
The Lake Hodges Projects were completed in 2012, securing
20,000 acre-feet of emergency water storage