Mid Basin Injection (MBI) Well Project at Centennial Park
Protecting and Replenishing Our Groundwater Basin
The Orange County Water District has embarked on an ambitious project in and around Centennial Park that will help protect and replenish Orange County’s groundwater basin. The MBI project involves drilling and building four new injection wells at Centennial Park as well as a monitoring well at Heritage Museum. In addition, the project includes:
- The construction of a water supply line and a backflush pipeline
- The construction of a new restroom/utility building and a rebuilt restroom/office utility building
- Repaving of the Centennial Park parking lot and other enhancements
Geotechnical and survey work as well as the project design has been completed. The four new injection wells are expected to be operational by the end of 2019, providing up to 12 million gallons per day of additional groundwater “recharge” capacity to the Orange County Groundwater Basin.
What is “Groundwater Recharge” and why is it needed?
The majority (70%) of the water Santa Ana supplies to residents is extracted from fresh water aquifers beneath the ground. The City operates 20 wells to pump this groundwater to the surface and into its main water system. When the level of the groundwater becomes too low, there is risk of seawater moving into the fresh water aquifers and water production costs rise since it takes more energy to pump water from greater depths.
The MBI program will raise the groundwater levels surrounding Centennial Park by directly injecting recycled water from OCWD’s GWR System into the principal aquifer.
Another benefit is that the MBI program will conserve water for the City of Santa Ana since the backflush water from the injection wells will be used to replenish water for Centennial Park’s lakes.
