Santa Barbara brings an advanced ozone water treatment plant on line to improve water quality after two years of development. Water for the City of Santa Barbara comes from Lake Cachuma and the Gibraltar Reservoir, both located on the Santa Ynez River. The water is treated at the William B. Cater Water Treatment Plant (Cater Plant). For the last two years, the City has been constructing new facilities to improve the water treatment process. Prior to the improvements, chlorine was used in the pre oxidation step prior to further treatment. An evaluation indicated that ozone is more effective than chlorine. Ozone reacts with organic material in the water, making it easier to removal in the subsequent treatment processes which include clarification and filtration. The recent upgrades in the process substitute ozone water treatment for chlorine in the pre oxidation step.
The Project was constructed to comply with new federal water treatment rules, which required lowering the allowable concentration of disinfection byproducts in the water. Disinfection byproducts are produced when chlorine combines
with naturally occurring organic material in the water, forming new compounds which are suspected to cause cancer. Ozone does not form these compounds. It also improves the removal of organic materials while improving the taste of the water. Over 1.6 billion gallons of drinking water per day are treated with ozone due to its superior treatment capabilities and the reduced risk associated with disinfection products. 9DVFG2NWT3Z4