A California City’s Groundbreaking Path to Water Self-Sufficiency

On Main Street in Santa Monica, Calif., a parking lot sits between the courthouse and a boarded-up convention center. Visitors looking for a parking spot or charging their electric vehicles would never guess that a world-class water management system churning out millions of gallons of purified water sits underneath it.

The city’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) is a state-of-the-art water recycling system that has helped bring Santa Monica 85 percent of the way to complete water self-sufficiency. Groundwater from the Santa Monica Basin is the major source of supply for the city, augmented by purchases from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. In 2011, the city was importing almost half its water, generating fears about what officials would do in case of an emergency.