LAKESIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - Scientists are using an autonomous underwater vehicle to help get purified wastewater to your faucets. The remote-controlled sub operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography helps measure how the purified water mixes with the Lake Jennings reservoir water.
It’s one of the state-required steps water officials need to take before purified wastewater from the Padre Dam Water District’s Advanced Water Purification System is introduced to homes through Helix Water District’s Lake Jennings and water treatment facility.
“There’s that factor that it’s coming from a waste facility originally. So, what happens if there’s some sort of failure that didn’t get caught? Well, now there’s a buffer. There’s a buffer. It will sit in the reservoir,” said Helix’s Director of Water Quality Brian Olney.
If all goes as planned, Padre Dam will need to expand its Advanced Water Purification System and build a pipeline to deliver that water to Lake Jennings. Olney said that could happen by 2023.
