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September 29, 2015

Orange County offers a model for places without enough water

  • To support the lawn-and-pool lifestyle utilities mix a waterworks cocktail by importing snowmelt, making toilet water tap-worthy and capturing runoff. They even may start straining salt from ocean water.
    • By JUSTIN PRITCHARD
    Associated Press

    FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Orange County's natural water supplies come from just three sources: limited rain, a single unreliable river and aquifers.

    But those are nowhere near enough to support the lawn-and-pool lifestyle that helped the home of Disneyland grow from 700,000 residents in 1960 to about 3.1 million today. So utilities must mix a sort of waterworks cocktail that includes importing snowmelt from distant mountains, making toilet water tap-worthy and capturing storm runoff. Eventually, they may strain the salt from ocean water.


     
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