The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) treats the wastewater from the cities of La Habra, Brea, Fullerton, Anaheim, La Palma, Buena Park, Los Alamitos, Stanton, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Garden Grove, Cypress, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Orange, Villa Park, Tustin Placentia, Yorba Linda and Irvine. OCSD is the agency responsible for maintaing the outfall pipes offshore. and is the third largest wastewater agency west of the Mississippi River.
OCSD is working on an update to the strategic plan to address the potential shortage of chemicals and getting better cost recovery from other agencies. Both of these issues are key to the successful future operation of the District.
A reliable supply of quality chemicals is a requirement of operating a wastewater treatment facility. Chemicals are used to mitigate odors, enhance settling of solids, reduce bacteria formation, and disinfect then dechlorinate the effluent prior to discharge.
These chemicals play a critical role in protecting the public health. As part of the revised strategic plan, OCSD will identify sources for chemicals, both domestic and foreign, and identify the ways these supplies could be disrupted. Alternative chemicals will also be identified to allow the District to continue operating if the primary chemicals are not available. For chemicals purchased overseas, quality control standards will be established to ensure the overseas-sourced chemicals perform the same as the domestic-produced counterparts.
OCSD works with the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) and the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) using contracts signed over 20 years ago. The contract terms had the OCSD providing funds to assist the other agencies to improve the water quality and health of the residents of the watershed. However, these contracts do not allow for cost sharing between OCSD, IRWD and SAWPA. OCSD is renegotiating with these agencies to include cost sharing which will allow the District to recover costs of services provided and not continue to foot the entire bill for projects.
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