Just this past month, Utah Business and Rocky Mountain Power honored the City of Orem with the Green Business Award for a community or government initiative. This award recognized the city's ongoing efforts to be a good steward of our natural resources through programs to conserve energy, water, materials, green space and trees.
Here's a quick look at some of the projects underway.
The new Orem City Center will be equipped with a robust solar panel system coupled with a battery solution that will power the city's Emergency Operations Center, which will provide critical power redundancy that is vital in emergency situations. The energy produced will also offset daily energy consumption.
We're also planning other solar installations at the Orem Family Fitness Center, Public Works Department, library and senior center. One of the best things about this project is that more than 60% of the total cost is covered by a federal energy efficiency grant and the panels will pay for themselves in about nine years.
Orem's water is our most precious natural resource, and we do everything we can to conserve it and care for it. We are currently building a 10-million-gallon water tank in central Orem, which will provide crucial operational and emergency water storage for generations to come.
We're also building a water reuse facility that will save more than 175 million gallons of drinking water annually. Personally, I'm very excited about this project as I was able to work with elected officials in other agencies to secure $10 million in funding or about 50% of the project's total cost. Our outstanding staff brought in another $3 million, and this project is now nearly two-thirds of the way funded without having to dip into city funds.
We spare no effort to protect our water sources in Provo Canyon and the nine wells throughout the city. We conduct 24/7, 365-day monitoring to guarantee the water reaching your home is fresh, clean and safe. Last year, the city of Orem passed the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Drinking Water Sanitary Survey with a perfect score. Our water team is the best in the business!
For the past year, Orem has been partnering with Waste Management to pilot an innovative recycling program that diverts plastic film (bags, packaging, wrappers) from the landfill. This program addresses a challenge that traditional recycling programs can't, and early results are promising. We hope this will be a game changer for recycling in Utah.
We're dedicated to preserving and expanding Orem's green spaces. Orem has been named a Utah Healthy Community this year partly for our efforts to provide green space for our residents' health and enjoyment.
Orem has 21 beautiful parks, and no resident is more than a mile from a city park. We're also growing the city's urban forest. In the last year, we've planted more than 300 trees, and the new city center will have 1.5 times the number of trees as before once it's all finished. Orem has been recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a "Tree City USA" for an astounding 31 years in a row.
Here in Orem, our conservation efforts are aimed at maximizing the good we do for the community while minimizing the cost to our taxpayers, and we're constantly searching for innovative ways to do both. Thank you for your support as we continue to build a better Orem.