In the latest episode of Dropping By, rainwater solutionsJoe Mouawad, General Manager of the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD), talks about EMWD’s focus on groundwater desalination.
EMWD is California’s sixth largest water retailer and serves some of the fastest growing regions across the state. The district has invested heavily in drought-resistant water supplies. One of those investments is groundwater desalination.
The district’s groundwater desalination efforts are part of the Groundwater Reliability Plus initiative. As part of EMWD’s efforts to improve resilience to drought, the district is channeling brackish groundwater to a reverse osmosis membrane facility.
Last year, EMWD commissioned its third reverse osmosis facility, producing 5.4 million gallons daily (MGD) of potable water. Combined with his two other facilities, EMWD has the capacity to produce approximately 14 MGD of drinking water through desalination.
In the video, Mouawad said one of the motivations for these desalination efforts is recognizing the impact EMWD has on climate change and changing drought patterns.
“Knowing these changing patterns, we can ensure that we capture that water, store that water in underground or surface reservoirs, and then rely on that water to get us through successive drought years. “We need to invest in that,” he said. Mr. Mouawad in an interview. “We know that the climate is evolving and changing, so we need to adapt to it. And we need to adapt to it. We need to make that happen by investing.”
“EMWD focuses on groundwater desalination” Watch the full video. rainwater solutionsis a partner brand of Endeavor Business Media Water Group.