SAN DIEGO -- Work is under way on a multi-million dollar project that will connect thousands of water customers to one of San Diego County's biggest and most underused water facilities, 10News reported.

The construction in Rancho San Diego is expected to eventually bring thousands of Otay Water District customers clean drinking water. Ron Ripperger of the Otay Water District told 10News, "This new pipe in an off-peak situation can deliver 16 million (gallons); basically twice as much."

It would be twice as much as Otay Water used to receive from the Helix Water District's water treatment plant. Helix's plant is capable of generating 106 million gallons of clean drinking water every day, but the plant works, on average, at about half its capacity.

"It couldn't be utilized fully, efficiently, because there wasn't enough pipeline capacity to get the water away from the treatment plant," said Jeff Garvey of the San Diego County Water Authority.

The new $50 million East County Regional Treated Water Improvement Program will connect pipelines from the Otay Water District, Padre Dam and Lakeside Water District to the treatment plant. The bottom line is a 25 percent boost in production.

"This will provide an additional source, an independent source for us to get water," said Ripperger.

Most of San Diego's water is treated at the Skinner Treatment Plant in Riverside County. However, experts said in the event of a disaster, such as an earthquake, San Diego could be cut off. Helix's plant will be able to pick up the slack, officials said.

When construction on the project is completed next fall, the plant will be delivering enough clean drinking water for an additional 60,000 households every year.