Las Virgenes Municipal Water District's new project aims to turn wastewater into drinking water

Dealing with the drought, and protecting Malibu creek, are a couple of the goals of the pure water project.

The project will turn the wastewater into pure drinkable water. The district has been working to get this off the ground since 2013.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District could eventually turn wastewater into pure drinking water for customers in Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and Westlake Village through its "Pure Water Project."

At the moment, the water district gets all of its water from the Metropolitan Water District. In about five years from now, the full-scale water treatment system will be completed and will produce 20% of the district's water supply.

"How do we create a local water supply to ensure that we're more resilient to droughts and future droughts? And one of the things that we decided to do is look at water reuse," said Mike McNutt, the public affairs officer for the water district.

The cost of this technology is just over $300 million. The return on investment will be in the form of locally produced water.

The full-sized version of this will be built in Agoura Hills. The clean water will be stored in the district's reservoirs after it goes through the cleansing process.

"When it's time to be put into the distribution system, it'll be put through our Westlake filtration plant for a seventh treatment, and then it's going to be put back into the drinking water system," McNutt said. "So... it goes down the drain... and then we're able to reuse it again."