This project was constructed by ARB to provide the City of San Juan Capistrano, California with a reliable source of good, safe drinking water by recovering and treating previously unusable brackish groundwater. The project will allow the City to reduce its dependence on imported sources such as the Colorado River and Northern California currently supplied by the Metropolitan Water District, and is one of the first public-private partnerships under the MWD's Groundwater Replenishment program. MWD approved the project in December of 2002. ARB provided full-service construction services in partnership with Boyle Engineering and Southwest Water Company.

The process utilizes reverse osmosis, or RO, which is used by many bottled water companies and home water purifiers. Incoming well water is passed through semi-permeable membrane elements under high pressure, removing unwanted mineral particles, some as small as individual molecules, after having first been passed through a series of filters.

Capacity: 5.14 MGD or 4800 acre-feet of water per year. One acre foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, the amount of water it takes to cover an acre to a depth of one foot, or the amount two families of four would use in a year.

Upon completion, this ARB constructed facility will supply virtually all the City's water needs during the winter months, and about half the water it needs during the summer months.

ARB installed over five miles of pipeline as part of this project in order to bring the water from the wells to the plant to be processed.