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
WACO Mtg:
August 1, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC P&O Committee Mtg:
August 4, 3:30 pm @ MWDOC
MWDOC Board Workshop Mtg:
August 6, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
MWDOC A&F Committee Mtg:
August 13, 7:30 am @ MWDOC
MWD Committee & Board Mtgs:
August 18-19 @ MWD
700 North Alameda Street, L.A.
MWDOC Board Mtg:
August 20, 8:30 am @ MWDOC
*MWDOC offices are located at:
18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley
Water Use Efficiency Tip of the Month |
You can reduce your outdoor water use by installing rotating nozzles, which use 30% less water than traditional sprinkler heads. Rotating nozzles also provide better wind-resistance, decrease misting, and reduce runoff. Rebates are currently available for rotating nozzles and other water-saving devices. Visit www.mwdoc.com/wue for more info. |
Four key storage indicators reflect Orange County's water supply situation:
1. Lake Mead (fed from Colorado River) currently stands at 46% full.
2. Lake Oroville (fed from State Water Project) currently stands at 50% full.
3. Metropolitan's drought storage is currently 50% full.
4. Orange County groundwater basin is currently 295,000 acre-feet from full.
Dana Point Mayor Pro-Tem Lisa Bartlett (2nd from left) with South Coast Director Bob Moore, Vice President Ingrid McGuire, and President Dick Dietmeier.
Steve Dishon, South Coast chief plant operator, explains how a high-power water pump pushes treated water into the distribution system.
| MWDOC Legislative Positioning |
AB 2175 (Laird/Feuer) - Position: Oppose unless Amended. This bill would require all urban water providers to reduce per capita water use in their service area or lose access to state grant funding for water related projects. The bill sets a statewide goal to reduce per capita water use by 20% in 2020. While MWDOC supports reasonable efforts to reduce water waste and increase efficiency, AB 2175 (as currently drafted) has flaws in a number of areas. The bill could hurt communities that have done conservation already, have large commercial or industrial users, or have significant part-time populations due to tourism. _______________________________ AB 885 (Laird/Feuer)- Position: Support if Amended. This bill would allow the member agencies of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to have their vote(s) cast via proxy when their appointed director(s) will be absent from Metropolitan board and committee meetings. MWDOC removed its opposition and agreed to support this bill after a compromise was reached between the author and Metropolitan to allow the use of a proxy voting system rather than appointing alternate directors, as had originally been proposed. |
By Wayne Clark, MWDOC Board President
Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) has the mission of providing a reliable, high quality imported water supply to Orange County at an economic price. This requires sound regional resource planning and management.
We carry out this mission in concert with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the principal wholesale agency that imports water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in central California and from the Colorado River. MWDOC in turn works with our client retail city water departments, independent water districts and private water firms to provide and manage water supplies. Presently, we are focusing on assisting our client agencies with the development of local water projects designed to provide new sources of water, especially in the next five years, to improve the overall reliability of Orange County’s multi-faceted water system.
California presently is experiencing an extended dry period that is limiting the natural water supply. In addition, a federal court has ordered additional cuts in water exports from the Delta in order to comply with federal environmental laws protecting an endangered species, the Delta smelt, a small fish the size of your thumb. Simply stated, we now are in a critical situation with current demand exceeding our supplies. For the past few years, MWD has been drawing down regional storage in order to meet the needs of the region. As a result, we have asked consumers to voluntarily cut back water usage by ten percent. Our region has been doing its part to conserve and to augment supplies with highly purified water reuse, such as the noted project of our neighbor agency, the Orange County Water District.
In addition to other local supplies being developed, ocean water desalination - the process of removing salts and other minerals from salt water – is a potential source of great abundance for our region. Treated to drinking water standards, desalination is not inexpensive. It requires new facilities and advanced technology and the ongoing use of costly energy. Desalination of seawater will add one more source to augment our necessary water supplies. It can help make up for some of the imported supply that we have lost. In this issue of eCurrents, we will talk about one potential ocean water desalination project for Orange County.
Should you have questions or comments, we would like to hear from you. Please send them to info@mwdoc.com. On behalf of the MWDOC Board of Directors and staff, we thank you for your part in conserving this life-giving water supply. Keep up the good work – you make the difference.
By Darcy Burke, MWDOC Director of Public Affairs
The Municipal Water District of Orange County’s (MWDOC) Board of Directors and staff are committed to accomplishing a high level of communication and outreach with our client agencies and others. During this past year, we launched our first electronic newsletter, eCurrents as part of our commitment to keep you informed about water and water-related issues. In an effort for continuous improvement, eCurrents will be adding a few new columns and broadening its reach.
You may have noticed that we have added A Message from the President. This will be a standing column each month. Please make sure you see the debut column this month and learn directly from the President of MWDOC’s Board of Directors what is going on.
One of the new feature columns that will be premiering in next month’s issue is an article from your legislators. Each month will feature a different legislator and focus on water-related legislation, issues, budget constraints and more. Senator Dianne Feinstein will be our first legislator to submit a feature. The Senator has been a champion for water over her career. Recently, the Senator and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a compromise plan to the Legislature to update California's water system by increasing storage, improving conveyance, protecting the Delta's ecosystem and promoting greater water conservation.
We’ve also created a new email address for your questions or comments, info@mwdoc.com. We want to hear from you and want to know what you are thinking. Let us know how we are doing!
By Karl Seckel, MWDOC Assistant General Manager
You have probably heard by now that Southern California’s water supplies have been cut by regulatory actions, and further reduced by the effects of a multi-year drought. What you may not have heard is how serious this problem is and how deeply it will affect the lives of Southern California residents. A recent news article noted that Lake Oroville, the start of the State Water Project, is projected to be at its lowest level of storage since 1977. DWR Director Lester Snow recently testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water and Power that next year "could be the worst drought in California's history." Consider the following statistics:
- Modeling work by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) indicates that based on current demand, there is a 70% chance that MWD will run out of stored water within the next five years.
- Under a second scenario in which demand on MWD was assumed to be reduced by 20% (through extra conservation, for example) there is a 30% chance that MWD will run out of stored water within the next five years.
- For the first time in MWD’s eighty year history, MWD lacks sufficient supplies to meet demands without pulling water out of storage or securing water transfers from other locations.
- Before the court order to reduce water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, MWD believes it would have been in a surplus situation about 70% of the time and would have to pull water out of storage 30% of the time. Following the court order, MWD now believes it will be in a surplus situation only about 30% of the time, and 70% of the time it will be faced with pulling water out of storage.
- There is a 40% chance that mandatory water rationing will be implemented in 2009.
Water delivery cutbacks and long-term droughts have created a very serious and very real water problem. Residents and businesses can make a big difference in the reliability of our water supply by taking immediate steps now to reduce waste and improve water efficiency. Failing to take action risks squandering our diminishing supplies, puts our residents’ quality of life in jeopardy, and places additional burdens on our already struggling economy. Pressure needs to be brought to bear on our state’s leaders to find and implement long-term solutions to the problems in the Bay-Delta that are of paramount importance to solving our water supply problems. The Bay-Delta is clearly broken and fixing it must be a priority for everyone in California.
Click Here to find out more our water supply situation.
By Joe Berg, MWDOC Water Use Efficiency Programs Manager
On July 1st, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) formally launched the new SoCal Water$mart Program. The program will provide rebate incentives for indoor and outdoor water-conserving devices to residential customers throughout Orange County and the MWD service area. More than 18 million people in the six county service area of Metropolitan will be able to access funding through this program.
Previously, MWDOC hired and managed its own rebate administration contractor, Honeywell, to facilitate rebates for Orange County residents. By participating in the SoCal Water$mart Program, MWDOC and its member agencies will save more than $200,000 per year in avoided rebate processing fees.Throughout the Metropolitan service area, this five-year, $40 million program is expected to save more than 175,000 acre-feet of water over the service life of the water-conserving devices. MWDOC is projecting to achieve approximately 16% of that water savings, or 28,000 acre feet of water savings.
Click Here for more on how the new SoCal Water$mart Program.
By Linda Homscheid, South Coast Water District Public Information Officer
Record-breaking heat didn’t stop more than 300 area residents, business owners and elected officials from enjoying South Coast Water District’s first-ever Community Open House on Saturday, June 21, at its new Groundwater Recovery Facility in Dana Point.
The event marked the first opportunity community members could tour the plant and learn how South Coast is helping to ensure water reliability for its service area by tapping into a local source of supply – the San Juan Groundwater Basin.
South Coast board members and staff were also there to discuss a wide range of water-supply and conservation issues, and to reinforce the responsibilities we all have to better manage one of our most precious resources – water.
Representatives from Metropolitan Water District (MWD), MWDOC, South Orange County Wastewater Authority, and the City of Dana Point also staffed information tables to give Community Open House guests a comprehensive look at regional water and wastewater management strategies.Click Here to read more about the Open House.
By Karl Seckel, MWDOC Assistant General Manager
Five south Orange County agencies are taking the next steps towards developing an ocean desalination facility in Dana Point. The agencies are in the final throes of approval of an agreement to form a Project Participation Committee to implement Phase 3 of the Dana Point Ocean Desalination Project. Phase 3 work includes an Extended Pumping Test to pull in ocean water and Pilot Plant Testing to determine the best way to turn the ocean water into drinking water. The work, estimated at $4.8 million, is necessary before final design can be completed. Participating agencies are: South Coast Water District, Laguna Beach County Water District, City of San Clemente, City of San Juan Capistrano and Moulton Niguel Water District. MWDOC is facilitating implementation of the project.
The desalination facility will potentially utilize a subsurface slant well intake system to tap into the alluvial channel that extends into the ocean offshore of Doheny State Beach. This approach provides pretreatment for the pumped water and it avoids potential adverse marine environment impacts that can be associated with conventional ocean intake systems. Project brine disposal impacts will be minimized through co-disposal with secondary treated wastewater through the San Juan Creek Ocean Outfall, located adjacent to the plant site. The plant site is owned by South Coast Water District (SCWD) and is located just inland of Doheny State Beach - situated on the south side of San Juan Creek and adjacent to the existing SCWD groundwater desalter plant.
Click Here to read more about the Dana Point Ocean Desalination Project.
By Kelly Hubbard, Water Emergency Response Organization of Orange County Programs Manager
How well you, your family, and your home survive a disaster often depends upon how well you are prepared. The first 72 hours after a major earthquake or other disaster are critical. Public safety services will be overwhelmed. You should be prepared to be self-sufficient for at LEAST 3 DAYS following a disaster. Should the water supplied to your home or business be shut off or become unsafe to use during a disaster, we suggest the following measures.
How much water should I store?
- Store one gallon of water per person per day. Children, nursing mothers, and ill people will need more.
- Keep at least a three-day supply of water per person (two quarts for drinking, two quarts for each person in your household for food preparation/sanitation).
- Keep extra water for pets.
How should water be stored?
Store water in clean, non-corrosive, tightly covered containers or purchase commercially bottled water. The bottles should be clearly labeled and dated, and the water changed every six months.
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