The Diemer Water Treatment Plant in Yorba Linda shut down for a week to prepare for new equipment. The shutdown will allow crews to upgrade the plant so that it can use ozone as the water’s primary disinfectant, rather than chlorine compounds. Substituting ozone for chlorine compounds as the primary disinfectant reduces the potential for the formation of disinfection byproducts such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids that are considered unsafe for human consumption by the US EPA. The work is expected to be completed next year.
The Diemer plant supplies nearly half of Orange County’s water. The plant can treat up to 520 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough for 3 million residents of Orange and Los Angeles counties. The plant generally pulls water from Northern California or the Colorado River.