Santa Monica
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Santa Monica, CA 90405
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By Lookout Staff

January 18, 2022 -- Santa Monica will take a significant step toward relying on its own water supply when it breaks ground Thursday on two major projects.

The projects totaling $72 million will help reduce imported water supplies by boosting capacity at two City owned facilities -- the Olympic Well Field and the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant.

Arcadia Water Treatment Plant (Courtesy City of Santa Monica)

The two projects will "help the City become water self-sufficient by 2023 by developing sustainable and drought-resilient water supplies and expanding groundwater production," City officials said.

The Olympic Well Field restoration could provide up to 3,200 acre-feet of groundwater per year (AFY) by, among other things, building an Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWTF).

The project also includes two new groundwater production wells and a new groundwater pipeline, City officials said.

The Arcadia Water Treatment Plant improvements will increase potable water production from 9,900 to 13,400 acre-feet a year, officials said.

Walsh Construction, an Illinois-based company, and Brown and Caldwell are working on the project, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-2023.

Thursday's ground-breaking ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. at the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant, which occupies a 4.8-acre site at 1228 South Bundy Drive in Los Angeles.

When it was approved nearly a decade ago, the City's Sustainable Water Master Plan predicted ,Santa Monica could rely solely on own water by 2020.

The goal was contingent on continuing to maximize its use of local water supplies and implementing water-efficiency programs ("Santa Monica on Track to Water Self-Sufficiency," July 16, 2013).

The 2018 Sustainable Water Master Plan Update (SWMP) adopted by the Council is expected to start paying off in 2029, six years after the projects are scheduled to be completed in 2023, staff said.