On August 22, 2024 students, faculty, and staff at the ReWater Center together with colleagues from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and development Center visited the Grace F. Napolitano Pure Water Southern California Demonstration Plant. This potable reuse demonstration facility produces up to 500,000 gallons a day of purified drinking water. This demonstration plant is being used to show that the purified water meets California’s potable reuse standards to inform design of the full scale advanced water purification facility. 

The demonstration plant uses three treatment processes to ensure the water leaving the facility is safe to drink. First, they utilize a membrane bioreactor to biologically remove organic material and then filter the water to remove particulates. The second stage is reverse osmosis, which uses high pressure to push water through membranes with pores small enough to block almost all compounds except for water. Finally, the water is disinfected with UV/advanced oxidation to remove any residual contaminants.