California Gubernatorial Candidate Meg Whitman Tours Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility

SANTA PAULA, Calif., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- California Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman toured the recently completed Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility in Ventura County yesterday. After touring the facility, she addressed approximately 150 members of the community and media outlets in front of the facility about job creation. The facility utilized 88% local union labor and employed on average 60 workers per day over the length of the 18 month project.

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"There is a significant funding infrastructure gap, specifically in water infrastructure, in California and it's imperative that both the public and private spheres work together to create innovative solutions to solve that problem," said Brian Cullen, President of PERC Water Corporation, the firm responsible for designing, building, operating and, in partnership with Alinda Capital Partners, LLC, financing the Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility. "Meg recognized that the combination of using private funds with an innovative facility design leads to more cost savings for the rate payers, less risk for the municipality and a faster project delivery. Inventive projects like this are what California needs at this critical time."

The Santa Paula Water Recycling is the first water recycling facility to be built under California's Government Code 5956 encouraging private investment to solve public infrastructure needs. The design-build-operate-finance (DBOF) contract was awarded to Santa Paula Water LLC, a company formed by PERC Water and Alinda Capital, in May 2008 and construction began just two months later. The facility was fully operational in May 2010, 7 months in advance of its compliance deadline, and PERC Water is under contract to operate the facility for 30 years. The City was not responsible for any up front capital costs as a result of the DBOF project delivery method and paid their first service fee this past month after the first complete month of operation.

The 4.2 million gallon per day facility replaced the City's original treatment facility built in 1939. The new facility utilizes advanced treatment process technologies, uses 70% less land than required by a conventionally designed facility, and resembles professional office buildings with completely covered underground processing tanks. The new facility is serving the City's population of approximately 30,000 people. Santa Paula is located in Ventura County.

PERC Water is a water recycling company that designs, builds, operates and manages water recycling facilities throughout the United States. They have designed more than 55 facilities – 20 of which they have designed, built and operated. The company guarantees water of the highest quality and assumes the risks associated with water recycling. PERC Water is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. Visit www.percwater.com.

SOURCE PERC Water Corporation