Moulton Niguel Water District gets FEMA grant
The $11 million will provide for pipeline to help reduce urban runoff to ocean
A woman walks along a path in Laguna Niguel Regional Park on Tuesday, where sewage pipelines will be installed underground along the trail. It’s funded mainly through a Moulton Niguel Water District FEMA grant. PHOTOS BY MINDY SCHAUER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Moulton Niguel Water District Engineers David Larsen, left, and Todd Dmytryshyn, stand on a bridge at Laguna Niguel Regional Park on Tuesday. Work will begin in late fall to install a new sewage pipeline in the park.
Moulton Niguel Water District Engineer Todd Dmytryshyn shows the area on a map that correlates to the background at Laguna Niguel Regional Park. A new sewage pipeline will be installed under the walking trail.
By Erika I. Ritchie
eritchie@scng.com
More than $11 million in new federal funding is helping a south Orange County water district with two projects that should help keep some urban runoff from going into the ocean.
The Moulton Niguel Water District is getting $10.3 million to replace nearly two miles of sewer force mains in Laguna Niguel Regional Park, hopefully preventing breaks and failures that would lead to even more runoff flowing into Aliso Creek. Another grant will help the district launch a pilot program that would turn some of the runoff into a local supply of drinking water.
Both are funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A $1.7 million grant will help seed the OASIS Water Resources Center, a concept the district is looking to pilot that would use filtration and disinfectants to convert the wastewater to drinking water.
If implemented, it could reduce the amount of runoff discharged into the ocean at Aliso Beach by as much as 5 million gallons daily, officials said.
The project would be the first of its kind in California and could be up and running in four to five years if Moulton Niguel can get agreement from the four water agencies that are now part of operating a treatment plant located in Laguna Niguel Regional Park, said Joone Kim-Lopez, general manager of Moulton Niguel Water District.
To do the project, the district would line and repurpose one of the existing pipelines to divert urban runoff from Aliso Creek for reuse.
“We want to reduce the amount of discharge into the ocean,” Kim-Lopez said, adding that 3 million to 5 million gallons a day are discharged from the treatment plant straight into the ocean. Most of that is water coming from yard over-irrigation.
Instead, the district would treat the captured runoff at the plant in the park and then add it to the water system, she said.
Kim-Lopez said the idea for the OASIS project to develop a local water supply came about a few years ago when the Moulton Niguel Water District, which serves customers in Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano, began working with the County of Orange and local cities to comply with regulations and create infrastructure to reduce discharge into the ocean.
“We thought if we could capture the water and treat it and use it for drinking water, that would have major benefits,” she said.
From that point forward, she said, the district worked with state regulators to let agencies like hers look at potable water reuse.
“Now, we can actually do a project,” she said. “Our project is small, and we can go online faster and use it as a pilot to understand the technology and the quality.”
A remaining hurdle for the district is getting the access to the regional treatment plant at the Laguna Niguel park that would be the site for the OASIS system.
The regional South Orange County Wastewater Authority operates the plant, so to get the go-ahead for the water reuse pilot, officials at Moulton Niguel need an agreement from the other participating water districts that use the treatment plant. Most of the water that goes into the treatment plant comes from the Moulton Niguel district, and officials at the district would like to “assume responsibility” at the plant, said Matt Collings, Moulton Niguel’s assistant general manager.
“We put forth a proposal to assume responsibility that gives full accountability,” Collings said of wanting to take over the plant’s operation. “It would require advanced treatment that would treat the water with disinfectant and filtration. We feel it’s really important to operate the treatment plant.”
The South Orange County Wastewater Authority operates three plants, including this one, which, along with other plants in the area, release a combined at least 23 million gallons of treated wastewater into pipes adjacent to Aliso and San Juan creeks each day that then flow through outfall pipes the ocean. Seven million of those gallons go through the Laguna Niguel treatment plant.
If the OASIS system goes online, it could harvest 4 million to 5 million gallons a day — which would not be released into the creek — and that could grow with time.
Rick Shintaku, the general manager of South Coast Water District, said he supports Moulton Niguel’s desire to operate the plant and understands why they want control to start up the OASIS system, but the system involves other plants and reaching an agreement is complex.
The SOCWA board will meet again on March 7 to discuss the topic. Information on Moulton Niguel’s OASIS project has also gone before several city councils and some community groups.
Among some of the groups keenly interested is the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, which has long pushed for better containment of runoff in Aliso Creek.
“The OASIS Project by Moulton Niguel Water District will have a positive impact in protecting Aliso Creek, the Aliso Estuary Restoration Project and improve ocean water quality in Laguna’s Marine Protected Areas,” said Mike Beanan, co-founder of the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition. “Working together, we need to provide a healthy ocean for sea life to thrive and ensure visitors to Aliso Beach can swim, skim and enjoy the coast free of inland urban runoff.”
Rep. Mike Levin, D- San Juan Capistrano, who helped the Moulton Niguel district secure the $10.3 million grant from FEMA, credited the district “for its innovation in the water industry and for implementing capital and water efficiency projects that save significant amounts of water, money, and future maintenance costs that then deliver savings to consumers.”
The miles of piping to be replaced with the larger grant were installed in 1980 and are critical wastewater infrastructure for the area, officials said.
“This is where all the flow comes together,” said Todd Dmytryshyn, the district’s assistant director of engineering. “The force mains convey more than half of the wastewater generated in our service area. It’s important for them to be as resilient as possible and to replace them with pipelines to withstand seismic or severe storms better. It’s a preventive measure mitigating a potential break.”
The project, which is expected to break ground later this year, is engineered for there to be uninterrupted service throughout construction, he said. A state-of-the-art trenchless construction technique, called micro tunneling, will be used at five creek crossings to minimize the impact on the natural environment, Dmytryshyn added.
Making the system of piping more resilient is also critical to keeping wastewater from the ocean, officials said.
If the infrastructure were to fail, wastewater would flow into Aliso Creek and to the beach by the millions of gallons, Collings said. “We would not be able to recover it all.”