SMWD is committed to developing local, reliable drinking water supplies. The District constantly evaluates its water portfolio and potential water supply projects, including the San Juan Watershed Project which has the capacity to provide 5.6 billion gallons of local, reliable water to South Orange County residents - enough water for 50,000 families each year.
SMWD is also a leader in using recycled water for landscape irrigation and has been successful in obtaining water from additional sources in the local area to supplement supply. The District uses recycled water for irrigation of slopes, parks, golf courses, schools and medians within its service area. Water is recycled at SMWD's three treatment plants, producing over 2 billion gallons of recycled water each year for landscape irrigation to homeowner associations and other municipalities within the District. In addition, SMWD collects urban return (runoff) water from Oso Creek, Dove Creek, and Horno Creek to blend with the recycled water as an additional source for irrigation. The use of recycled water and urban return flows from the creeks offset the need to import drinking water from MWD for irrigation.