The Orange County Water District (OCWD) was created in l933 by California State legislation to manage and protect the vast groundwater basin under north-central Orange County. Since that time, OCWD has tripled the yield of the basin through a tradition of innovation that includes expansion and improvements to recharge facilities, employment of well head and other treatment technologies, water research, conservation and reclamation projects. OCWD’s Water Factory 21, which remains a model for water reclamation around the world, provides millions of gallons of water each day to create a fresh water barrier against seawater intrusion and to replenish the groundwater basin. OCWD’s Green Acres irrigation and industrial water project frees up thousands of acre-feet of potable water each year.

OCWD supplies reliable, high-quality groundwater to more than 23 cities and water agencies serving 2 million residents. The groundwater basin is recharged primarily from the Santa Ana River and to a lesser extent from imported water purchased from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. OCWD monitors the groundwater taken out each year to ensure that the basin is not overdrawn and carries out an assessment program to pay for operating expenses and the cost of imported replenishment water.

OCWD has one of the most sophisticated groundwater protection programs in the world. The District’s basin has one of the largest arrays of monitoring wells in the country. The wells provide input to a three-layer model of the basin used for basin management. OCWD monitors for over 300 constituents, conducting more than 260,000 analyses per year. OCWD has an onsite laboratory which is one of the finest in California. OCWD’s active research effort includes studying the life extension of filtration membranes, Santa Ana River health effects, use of bacteria to clean contaminants, and other water research issues. An outgrowth of OCWD’s advanced membrane technology work currently underway uses microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultra violet disinfection to produce a new, reliable source of purified water using highly treated water from the County Sanitation District.

As the world’s population and water demands continue to grow, Orange County Water District will be working hard to meet the challenges of providing safe, reliable and high-quality water for future generations of Orange County residents.