By Cerritos (CA) Mayor Laura Lee
March 24, 2008

Cerritos (CA) was one of the first cities to win the Municipal Water Conservation Achievement Award from The U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2005. Like most communities in southern California, Cerritos is concerned about global warming and the trend of water shortages that threaten long-term sustainability. Similarly, the cost of water supply continues to increase as supply becomes scarcer. These and other reasons prompted the city to take action, and in 1988 we created the “Recycled Water Distribution System” to both conserve and recycle water resources. We recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of this project; we are proud to extol its major accomplishments.

A cornerstone of the city’s water conservation program is an $8.9 million pipe distribution loop and pumping station. This mostly subsurface infrastructure relies on the purchase of reclaimed water from the Los Angeles County Sanitation District Los Coyotes Water Reclamation Plant located in Cerritos. The Los Coyotes Plant processes wastewater by removing solids; filtering out bacteria and other organisms; and particle removing. The filtered water is then pumped into a chlorination tank to kill any remaining organisms. This three'stage process takes 12 hours, and it consistently removes over 99 percent of the suspended solids and turbidity.

The plant produces up to 37.5 million gpd (gallons per day). Approximately 1.03 billion gallons of recycled water are sold annually to Cerritos, the local school district, the neighboring city of Lakewood, CalTrans, Cerritos College, the Central Basin Water District, the Artesia Cemetery District and local homeowners associations.

The distribution loop is comprised of 22 miles of pipes: about two-thirds of the pipe forms the main loop of the system; and the remaining one-third of the pipes form lateral connections to get the recycled water to various consumers. This system allows Cerritos to continue watering parks and medians, and supply many local schools despite the growing shortages facing most southern California communities.

The Recycled Water Distribution System has effectively conserved water and has saved the city money. In Fiscal Year 2007, 1.04 billion gallons of recycled water displaced the use of an equal amount of source water. Cerritos saved 713 million gallons of drinking water, while other local agencies saved 328 million gallons. If the city had imported that water, it would have paid $888,134 more than the $367,146 it paid for the recycled water. In the 20 years since the System has been operating, Cerritos has reduced the need for source water use by 11.8 billion gallons of drinking water and $5.9 million in water purchase expenses.

While the Recycled Water Distribution System continues to serve as the principal means to conserve water, the city has also engaged in a number of other initiatives, including demonstration projects and public education. To encourage Cerritos residents’ efforts to conserve water, the city planted a 2,500-square-foot water'saving demonstration garden in the late 1990s, and dedicated another park featuring a botanical garden with drought-tolerant plants in 2003.