Orange County Breaks Ground on Trampas Canyon Reservoir

On Feb. 22, officials with the Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) broke ground on the Trampas Canyon Reservoir in Orange County, Calif. The reservoir is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019 and will have a capacity of 1.6 billion gal of combined recycled wastewater and storm water. The completed reservoir will be the largest surface water reservoir in south Orange County, according to The Orange County Register.

“The rate of wastewater being produced by residents remains level, but the demand for irrigation is higher in the summer,” said Dan Ferons, general manager for the SMWD. “Right now, during the cooler season, there isn’t as much demand for irrigation, so some of that water is going to the ocean instead of storage.”

Originally built in the 1970s as part of sand mining operation, the reservoir is being repurposed and expanded to provide for the summer irrigation needs of Orange County. The district loses approximately 7.7 billion gal of recycled water per year and the nearby Chiquita Water Reclamation Plant produces between five to six million gal of recycled water per day, Ferons said. The reservoir will enable the county to retain some of the recycled water and repurpose it during the dry season.