MWDOC Board of Directors
Wayne A. Clark, President
Joan C. Finnegan, Vice President
Ergun Bakall, Director
Brett R. Barbre, Director
Larry D. Dick, Director
Susan Hinman, Director
Ed Royce, Sr., Director
Kevin P. Hunt, General Manager
Calendar of Events
MWDOC P&O Committee Mtg:
September 2, 3:30 pm @ MWDOC
MWDOC Board Workshop Mtg:
September 3, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
WACO Mtg:
September 5, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC A&F Committee Mtg:
September 10, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
MWD Committee & Board Mtgs:
September 8-9 @ MWD
700 North Alameda Street, L.A.
MWD Water Forum:
September 11 @ Hyatt Regency in Newport Beach, Click here to register
MWDOC PAL Committee Mtg:
September 15, 8:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC Board Mtg:
September 17, 8:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC Exec. Committee Mtg:
September 18, 8:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC/OCWD Joint Board Mtg:
September 24, 8:30 am @ MWDOC
*MWDOC offices are located at:
18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley
YLWD Board President John Summerfield accepts a certificate from California State Assemblyman Mike Duvall commemorating the dedication of the District’s new admin facility.
August Survey Question |
Which best describes your philoso-phy on imported water allocations? (A) Flat Allocation – Every home should get an equal amount of water. (B) Uniform Reduction – Every customer should be asked to cut back a flat % from last year’s use. (C) Water Budget Based – Each home should have a baseline that factors in lot size, landscaped area, household size and weather. (D) Community Response – There should just be days you can or can’t water outdoors (for example – an odd/even, two watering days a week schedule). (E) Other – Please explain. Click here to vote now! Your responses will be published in the September issue of eCurrents. |
Shakeout Map of Chino Hills Earthquake
Water Use Efficiency Tip of the Month |
Does your irrigation system have leaks or broken sprinkler heads? If so, you could be wasting hundreds of gallons of water per month. Next time you're in the yard, run your sprinkler system for a few minutes and look closely for trouble areas. Adjust sprinkler heads to prevent overspray, repair broken heads, and fix all leaks. Making these simple repairs to your irrigation system can save up to 500 gallons of water per month. For more information on how to save water outdoors, visit www.bewaterwise.com. |
By Wayne Clark, MWDOC Board President
Water storage in surface reservoirs is an important part of water resource planning. Extra water in rainy years is stored for use in dry years. Historically, investment in storage, locally as well as statewide, has been the underlying success of water management in California. We have met local demand in past dry years largely because of the huge storage projects built in our principal sources of water from Northern California, from the Colorado River, and regionally at Diamond Valley in Riverside County.
Things are different this year. Despite Orange County’s good record of conservation and the large reservoir built by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) at Diamond Valley near Hemet, our imported water supplies are falling short. The Diamond valley project was built in the 1990s at a cost of some $2 billion. It was designed as a six-month emergency supply.
Because of the drought afflicting California and all of the Southwest, we have been using the Diamond Valley water to meet everyday demands. As a result of this extraordinary use, the reservoir has been drawn down to a point where it presently is only 65% full. Our water system storage in Northern California and on the Colorado River – our major sources of supply – are likewise dangerously low. Lake Oroville north of Sacramento, which feeds our State Water Project supply, is only at 33% full, and Lake Mead, our source of supply from the Colorado River, is only 46% full.
Click here for to read the full Message from the President.
By Matt Stone, MWDOC Associate General Manager
A wise admonition says “save for a rainy day,” but in the water business we look to put water away during rainy days for later use during dry times. This is where the idea of storage comes into play. You’ve also heard the one about not “putting all of your eggs in one basket.” Metropolitan now has nearly a dozen different baskets where water can be stored. In total, almost 3 million acre feet of Metropolitan’s water (an acre foot is more than enough water for two typical Orange County families for one year) was in storage at the beginning of 2007. In 2007 and 2008, we all relied on this storage to keep the region from going into allocations after a combination of dry weather and a regulatory curtailment of Delta pumping reduced our imported supplies.
Click here for the full story on water storage.
By Cindy Mejia, Yorba Linda Water District Public Information Officer
1972 was the year that brought us “Sandford and Son”, the Watergate scandal and gas for 55 cents a gallon. It was also the year that the Yorba Linda Water District, serving fewer than 8,000 customers in a 4,844-acre service area with a staff of 12, moved into a building on the site of a former abandoned booster station on Plumosa Drive near Old Town Yorba Linda.
Now serving more than 65,000 customers in a 14,475-acre service area with a staff of 73, the YLWD Board of Directors, together with Assemblyman Mike Duvall and representatives from the offices of Senator Bob Margett, Congressman Gary Miller, and Assemblyman Bob Huff, celebrated the dedication of YLWD’s new Administration Building in Placentia on July 16, 2008.
More than 125 individuals braved the scorching weather to attend this VIP event, complete with tours of the new facility and a short reception. The tours included stops inside the redesigned SCADA room, board and training rooms, and the interactive lobby wall, which details a map of the District boundaries, major pipelines and reservoirs.
Click Here to read more about the dedication.
By Steve Hedges, MWDOC Water Use Efficiency Programs Supervisor
In early fall of 2004, MWDOC was awarded a Prop 13 State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Grant for $774,320 for implementation of MWDOC’s SmartTimer Rebate Program. Since that time, rebate incentives have helped facilitate the installation over 4,000 weather-based irrigation controllers ("smart timers"), saving over 3,600 acre-feet of water. Rebate incentives for these smart timers have averaged just over $400 for the residential homeowner and just under $900 for the commercial site owner. On top of this original SWRCB grant, additional funding has been contributed by the local retail water agencies, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), and several federal agencies including the National Resource Conservation Service, the US Bureau of Reclamation, and the State Water Resources Control Board..
In order to keep this successful rebate program flourishing for the next four years, MWDOC applied for and was awarded a South Orange County Integrated Regional Water Management grant to continue the SmartTimer Program in eight south Orange County retail water agency service territories. This left a void in funding for the remaining SmartTimer Rebate Program retail agency participants, primarily located in north Orange County.
In order to close this funding gap, MWDOC submitted a proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation's CALFED Water Use Efficiency Grant Program and in July 2008, MWDOC was awarded $299,919. The CALFED grant will be used to support all aspects of the Program, including marketing the Program through MWDOC-produced bill inserts and marketing brochures, newspaper inserts and ads, and direct mail pieces.
Click Here to read more about the SmarTimer grant.
By Kelly Hubbard, Water Emergency Response Organization of Orange County Programs Manager
The earth shook, rattled, and rolled on July 29, 2008, giving Southern California a little reminder of what nature is capable of. Those closest to the epicenter described sudden jolts of movement as the earth began to shake, while those further out in Orange County noted the rolling movements as the earthquake moved through the alluvial soils of cities along the Santa Ana River. No matter how you felt the earth move on that Thursday morning, nature provided Orange County water utilities with an “Are You Ready?” pop quiz.
Across the county, people followed the “Duck, Cover and Hold” safety response that is recommended by the California Office of Emergency Services and the American Red Cross. Many businesses, schools, and government agencies evacuated their buildings and assessed whether the buildings were safe to re-enter. Fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and public works crews immediately started quick surveys (often called Windshield Surveys) to assess damage within their communities. The Orange County Operational Area Emergency Operations Center activated to coordinate damage assessments and any possible mutual aid needs.
The water utilities in Orange County met nature’s challenge with a field response that passed the pop quiz with flying colors. But the earthquake response also created the new question of “What are our office and emergency operations center procedures when the earthquake isn’t quite a ‘disaster’?” Read on to learn more about the water utilities’ response and how this question was answered.Click Here to find out more about emergency preparedness.
Municipal Water District of Orange County
18700 Ward Street
P.O. Box 20895
Fountain Valley, CA 92728
Phone: (714) 963-3058
Fax: (714) 964-9389
www.mwdoc.com