Severe drought, dwindling local water supplies and the high costs associated with imported water have many utilities looking for new ways to increase their local drinking water supplies to fill future needs. In Southern California, several public and private utilities have chosen water reuse as the answer to these problems. “In California, these treatment processes are called AWT’s, or advanced water treatment plants,” said Mehul V. Patel, P.E., Orange County Water District’s (OCWD) director of water production.

A water main break in Mission Hills erupted early Wednesday morning leaving some without water service for part of the day. A break on an 8-inch diameter water main was reported at 3:45 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Fort Stockton Drive and Ibis Street in Mission Hills. It was shut down at about 5 a.m. City of San Diego Public Utilities Department crews quickly capped the line but repairs had to continue into the afternoon.

City of San Diego crews worked through the night to repair a sinkhole closing a popular route in or out of Pacific Beach just north of Garnet Avenue. A 30-inch transmission water pipeline burst Monday, prompting the closure of the Interstate 5 off-ramp to Mission Bay Drive. The break, reported before noon, created a massive sinkhole estimated at more than 30 feet in diameter on the northbound lanes of Mission Bay Drive at Damon Avenue.

Dudek will be studying the possibility of the Rainbow Municipal Water District obtaining some of its water supply from the Bonsall Groundwater Basin of the San Luis Rey River. The board voted 5-0 to approve a $572,903 contract with Dudek, Oct. 24, to provide engineering services for studies which would bring a Bonsall Groundwater Basin desalter project closer to implementation. “This project is to evaluate what water rights we have in the Bonsall basin and the feasibility of extracting that,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.

There is something lurking in the water of Lake Jennings. It’s not a sea monster, but rather a tiny submarine that is part of a study testing the lake’s water quality. On October 30th, a harmless dye called rota-meen was put into Lake Jennings by Scripps to track the mixing of purified water with the water of the lake. Now more than ever, San Diego needs a study supply of water. They will collect the data with a submersible drone. Using advanced purified water could mean less water would need to be imported from the Colorado River.