The constant search for drinkable water in arid Southern California soon could tap into a new resource – the brackish ocean water that seeps into the southwestern edge of Orange County’s huge natural aquifer.

A small coalition that includes two local water agencies (Mesa Water and the Orange County Water District) and two Orange County cities (Newport Beach and Huntington Beach) said on Monday, June 24, that they’d received $250,000 in federal money to look at the possibility of turning brackish water – water that’s got too much salt to be potable but not as much salt as what you’d find in the open ocean – into stuff people can drink.

The idea isn’t new. People in Torrance and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties already drink brackish water after it’s been treated in a pressurized filtration process similar to the technology used when turning ocean water into tap water.

But the concept hasn’t been common in Orange County, even though water officials have known for decades that brackish water flows into the local aquifer, particularly in areas near the coast in Huntington Beach and Upper Newport Bay.

How much of that might be ripe for transformation – and the cost of doing so – are two questions that figure to be answered by next spring.

“We have a lot of people and not a lot of water. So, we’re constantly looking for the next source of water,” said Paul Shoenberger, general manager for Mesa Water, which is the lead agency on the study.

“But each new source is a little more expensive than the last,” he added.

The county – and, specifically, Mesa Water – have been leaders in finding new and sometimes nontraditional sources for water.

Much of the water used by about 2.5 million people who live in north and central Orange County is stored in a natural underground aquifer that runs from just beneath the county’s north and central coasts to underground Yorba Linda, reaching a depth of more than 2,000 feet at some points. The aquifer, in turn, is supplied by the Santa Ana River and rainwater reclamation, which includes a series of storage pools that flow and ebb during the winter storm season.

But other sources that supply Orange County with drinkable water are expected to become less secure in coming years.

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