SAN DIEGO, CA — The Pure Water San Diego program recently reached a critical milestone, paving the way for Phase 1 of the $3-billion program to supply local, sustainable water to San Diego’s more than 1.4 million residents. The project secured a first-of-its-kind National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to add purified water to the Miramar Reservoir. Global design firm Stantec, in partnership with Brown and Caldwell, has been working with the City of San Diego since 2015 to bring this program to life.

Pure Water San Diego is a phased, multiyear program to transform the city’s existing system to maximize the use and reuse of its own water supply and offer a cost-effective investment for San Diego’s water needs. At its completion in 2035, the Pure Water program will provide one-third of San Diego’s water supply locally. This project will make the city more water independent and resilient against drought, climate change, and natural disasters, as well as reduce the city’s ocean wastewater discharges by more than 50 percent.

Stantec’s involvement includes creating a program-wide delivery strategy and program governance structure with associated procedures, plans, controls, business processes, and reporting requirements. Stantec developed preliminary designs and is providing independent review of final designs, construction planning, and operation and maintenance readiness planning. The Stantec team also currently provides the city with ongoing regulatory support.

Phase 1 of the program includes a series of facilities and pipelines to clean recycled water and produce 30 million gallons per day of high-quality, purified water. The purified water will blend with the city’s imported and local water sources and be re-treated at the Miramar Water Treatment Plant before distribution to the public. Phase 1 key projects include the Morena Pump Station and Pipelines, North City Water Reclamation Plant Expansion, North City Pure Water Facility, and North City Pure Water Pump Station and Pipeline.

Phase 2 of Pure Water San Diego will involve constructing one or more additional advanced water treatment plants that will feed water into Lake Murray and the San Vicente Reservoir, ultimately providing a total of 83 million gallons per day of recycled water for indirect potable use.