O.C. Water 101 Questions

1. The article looks at water globally, then statewide, and finally locally. How much more water do we have on earth now than we did thousands of years ago? How much of the Earth’s surface is covered with water? Explain the analogy the article uses to compare all of Earth’s water to a full bathtub. What does this mean to you? 

2. Most of Orange County’s water comes from groundwater. An underground natural reservoir (basin) provides water for over 2 million people. Being underground keeps the water from evaporation and purifies it as well. How much water is useable from the basin? How is the basin refilled? Where is the remainder of OC’s water from? 

3. What is the basic goal of Orange County Water District’s recharge effort? Where does this recharging begin? How does the water flowing down the Santa Ana River end up hundreds of feet underground in Orange County’s groundwater basin?

4. Diamond Valley Lake is Southern California’s new reservoir. Explain its size, its ability to store and provide water, and its recreational features. 

5. There is a limited amount of water available in Orange County and as a state as a whole. Who or what are the major competitors for all available water? Who uses the most?

6. According to the article, discuss the measures that will help meet the water needs of our growing population.

7. Are the water quality standards of our tap water in Orange County anywhere near as stringent as those for bottled water? Who sets these standards for purity of tap and bottled water?

8. After reading this article, are you more or less inclined to drink tap water? Why or why not?
                                                        



                                                           

                                                       O.C. Water 101	

	“O.C. Water 101” is an article that discusses water issues and information that affects Orange County. It was initiated to remind our citizens that we live in an arid region, a “Disneyland”, as the author of Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner, calls Southern California. Orange County is a place where, if we took away the engineered, unnatural water supply, we would revert to a desert. We have taken a desert, and by manipulating and re-engineering the natural water supply of the Western United States and the State of California, created an economic, power, and agricultural center as well as a lifestyle destination that is the envy of the world. Historically, civilizations were drawn to areas of abundant water. Today, we have reversed that pattern in California, and people are gathering in Southern California while the natural water supply is in Northern California.
	
	The goal of this article is for all of us to become more knowledgeable about water and to actively vote on water issues that affect us. We seldom think about it, but much of our water comes from outside the county’s borders. Since we are dependent on forces outside our county to keep the life blood of water coming here, and since this water is required for our natural and economic well-being, it is only prudent that we understand and are involved in the processes that affect Orange County’s water supply. 

	This is a perfect time to get involved and become educated on water, because the water industry is changing. We can no longer depend on historic dams and canals that have provided water for the past many years. Today, society is concerned about the environment as well as water supplies. So future water supply projects must be accomplished without degrading the environment. That means more storage in groundwater basins, water transfers from surplus water areas, more water conservation during non-drought times and more water reuse. 

Where Does O.C. Get it’s Water?
	Most of O.C.’s water supply comes from groundwater. North-central Orange County is on top of a vast underground natural reservoir that provides groundwater for over 2 million people. In addition to being an evaporation-proof reservoir, the basin is also a natural purification system and transportation system. 

	The basin began forming millions of years ago as mountains eroded and ocean sediments filled a deep valley, trapping Santa Ana River water between the layers of accumulated sand and gravel. The basin overlies an area from Yorba Linda to the Pacific Ocean and from the El Toro “Y” north to the Los Angeles County border. It is more than two Eiffel Towers deep. The deepest aquifers in the basin still contain pristine water that fell to the earth thousands of years ago. The water Orange County drinks today may have entered the basin one year, 100 years, or 1,000 years ago, depending on the location and depth of the well that delivers it to the surface. 

	Up to 326 billion gallons of groundwater is useable from the basin. The basin is refilled with flows from the Santa Ana River, augmented with water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River. The basin provides 75% of the water needs for the most populated, north-central portion of Orange County; the other 25% is imported water. South Orange County lacks useable groundwater so it has to import all of its water from Northern California and the Colorado River.  

Water is Fascinating
	We have the same amount of water on earth today as we did when the dinosaurs roamed the earth years and years ago. What is amazing is that since time began, not one drop of water has been lost or gained on our planet, even though it has been recycled millions of times. 
	
	From space, we look like a “blue planet” because 70% of the earth’s surface is water. However, if you put all the earth’s water in a bathtub, the relative amount available for man to drink would be one teaspoon. The reason for this is because most of the earth’s water is salty ocean water and most of the fresh water that we can drink is either frozen at the poles, in the air as part of the hydrologic cycle, or deep in groundwater basins, too deep to be economically reached. 

	Our bodies are made up mostly of water; some say 65% depending on several factors. We need water to live, and we will die without it in a few days. Practically everything we know involves water. Tomatoes are 80-90% water. It takes 700 gallons of water to make a cheeseburger, when you consider the water required for meat, bread, and the rest of the ingredients. Someone once figured it takes 32,000 gallons of water to make a car. 

	Depending on which water book you read, an abundant supply of safe, healthy water is a growing global problem. Former Illinois Senator Paul Simon has written an excellent book on the global water situation called “Tapped Out.” We highly recommend you read it. United Nations officials warn that unless something is done to improve the global water situation, water could be the crisis resource of this century. Economically, Wall Street firms are starting to look at water as a commodity, perhaps the world’s new “gold” or “oil”. 

	A sad commentary on the world’s fresh water supply is the fact that about 10,000 children die each day because of the lack of water or access only to polluted water. Senator Simon recommends that all elected officials become involved in water in order to avert a potential disaster in our future, and that cost effective technologies be developed to desalt ocean water. 

Water in California: Remarkable
	Over 70% of California’s rivers have been modified by engineers to ensure that the abundant rainfall in Northern California can be redistributed to satisfy the water needs of the residents of Southern California. The State is crisscrossed with massive canals and dams built beginning in the 1930s. These massive water projects made California the nation’s leading producer of food and fiber, a major manufacturing entity, the most populous state and the 8th largest economy in the world. 

	Each urban area reached out for its share of Sierra Nevada snowmelt water. Los Angeles built the Owens Valley Aqueduct, followed by another one to the Colorado River. Farmers in the Central Valley enjoy inexpensive water provided by the Federal Central Valley Project. The Feather River and Oroville Dam became the anchor for the State Water Project, a statewide supply of primarily urban water. Even Oakland and San Francisco found pure mountain runoff, the latter by damming the mirror image of the Yosemite Valley, the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Over 1,200 reservoirs dot the landscape, and the energy used to move water in California is more than some states use for all their electrical needs. 

	The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims this historic water manipulation caused environmental damage. One water book notes that there are two things readily visible from space, China’s Great Wall and the water canals in California. 

California Water Use and Fierce Competition
	California will add the current population of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah to its census counts by the year 2020; approximately 15 million new residents. In Southern California, expect almost half that amount (roughly 7 million or twice the population of the Chicago Metropolitan Area). How will we satisfy our ever-growing thirst? 	

	There are three main competitors or users of California’s developed water supplies- the environment, agriculture, and urban users. Each essentially competes for the precious resource and each camp has its own opinions on the other’s water use. 

	Environmentalists believe that there is plenty of water to go around if the agricultural and urban users were less wasteful and focused more on conservation. They are opposed to new water projects with canals and reservoirs due to the resulting environmental damage. They support efforts to conserve and reuse water supplies we have available today. 

	The agricultural community fear threats to their way of life from urban encroachment and water transfers that would fallow land and destroy rural communities. Globally, they are concerned about who will feed the world and note that Californians benefit from inexpensive and abundant food products. They also say that they are implementing as many water efficiency measures as they can afford to do. 

	Urban areas think that the agricultural community is taking precious water to grow low-value crops. They say that if the agricultural community would conserve just 10% of their water, that would provide all the water necessary to meet urban needs far into the future. Urban water leaders believe environmental water managers have little or no science to back up many of their claims. Meanwhile, California uses more water than any other state and agriculture continues to pump water out of state groundwater basins at a rate of 489 billion gallons a year without replacing that groundwater, which took millions of years to put in place. 

Why Care About Water in O.C.?
	Orange County has all the characteristics of an area with potential for future water problems. We live in an arid climate. We have the same rainfall as North Africa. Orange County must rely on water from outside its boundaries. It is subject to population growth. Some estimate that Orange County will have 500,000 new residents by 2020 because our families are having families. 
	
	Orange County has a history of droughts and floods. In the 1860s, there was supposedly such a large flood that the San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers joined forces and flowed to the ocean as one river. In 1938, a flood devastated Orange County and paved the way for the building of the Prado Dam, at the intersection of the 91 and 71 freeways. During that flood you could take a rowboat from Fullerton to the ocean. 
	
	A similar pattern of recurring drought is part of the county’s past. It could be said that the county got its present name from the citrus industry that resulted from droughts that killed off earlier grape, cattle, and sheep industries. 

Santa Ana River Watershed
	Orange County’s water picture begins in the San Bernardino Mountains at the headwaters of the Santa Ana River. For hundreds of years the Santa Ana River has been the lifeblood of Orange County. The Santa Ana River and its tributaries of creeks drain an area of thousands of acres of land that eventually flows into Orange County. What happens in the upper watershed of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties affects the quality of water entering our County. 

	For the past several years, the major water agencies in the upper and lower watershed have come together to improve the environment and water quality of the upper watershed and especially the area’s groundwater basins. The major water agencies formed an organization called the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority. Orange County Water Districts is Orange County’s representative in the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority organization and represents the interests of the lower watershed. The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority’s long-term goals are to drought-proof the watershed, clean up groundwater basins for future groundwater storage, and improve the environment in the watershed.

Where Do We Get Imported Water?
	The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides imported water from Northern California and the Colorado River to all of Southern California, including Orange County. Their agent for most of Orange County’s imported water is the Municipal Water District of Orange County. Unlike north Orange County, the southern part of the county does not have a large groundwater basin. South Orange County is 100% dependant on imported water.

	The Diemer Filtration Plant in Yorba Linda treats surface water imported to Orange County and we primarily get our imported water from the Colorado River. The Municipal Water District of Orange County is working with South Orange County water agencies to develop projects to increase the reliability of water in that area. 

	With known and predicted cut backs in imported water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is working hard to compensate for those cut backs by making arrangements to store surplus water in groundwater basins, working on water transfers, and other ways to enhance Southern California’s water reliability. 

Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County
	Southern California’s new reservoir is 4.5 miles long, 2 miles wide, covers some 4,500 acres, is 160-260 feet deep, and began filling in May of 2000. It is the area’s largest reservoir, providing enough water for Southern California for six months in the event an earthquake severs the canals leading here from Northern California and the Colorado River. It doubles our surface water storage capacity. The reservoir will also help with droughts and managing peak water use in the summers. The beautiful lake will be a recreational center for hiking, fishing, boating, golfing, camping, and more.   

Where Do We Get Our Groundwater?
	The Santa Ana River, augmented by imported water when it is available, provides the water to refill Orange County’s groundwater basin each year. Simply put, the goal of the Orange County Water District’s groundwater recharge effort is to put back as much water as is taken out. 

	The process of recharging water into the groundwater basin begins behind Prado Dam. Behind the Dam is over 500 acres of constructed wetlands that naturally filter about 60% of the Santa Ana River flows. During the summer, most of the Santa Ana River flow consists of purified water from upstream sewage treatment plants in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Once the water moves through the wetlands, the water has been stripped of nitrates and regains a natural chemistry before moving into Orange County and the Water District’s recharge basins. 

	How does water flowing down the Santa Ana River end up hundreds of feet underground in Orange County’s groundwater basin? Orange County Water District manages a very sophisticated system of lakes, or percolation ponds, in Orange and Anaheim that seep water through the lake bottoms into the deep aquifers below. Most people will recognize one of our lakes as the home of the Santa Ana Fishing Lakes concession. 

	It is interesting to note that only in that area of the county is the soil composition of sand and gravel conductive to water traveling to deep aquifers. Underlying the rest of the groundwater basin is a fairly consistent clay layer that prevents significant percolation into the groundwater basin outside of the Anaheim and Orange areas. Each of our lakes acts like purification funnels, delivering water into groundwater basin. The lakes are interconnected with pipes and pumps that can be controlled by computers. Over the years, constantly improving this recharge system has tripled the yield of the groundwater basin. 

Water Quality
	California leads the nation in the high standards required of the water delivered to your tap. In fact, the water quality standards for your tap water are more stringent than that of bottled water. Tap water standards are set by the California Department of Health Services and monitored by Orange County Health and Environmental Protection Agency, while bottled water standards are set by the Food and Drug Administration. 

	The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Orange County Water District each have state-certified water quality testing laboratories than continually sample and test groundwater and imported water. The Orange County Water District lab processes over 13,000 samples, doing 300,000 analyses each year for almost twice as many contaminates as is required by regulations to ensure our County’s water meets or exceeds the high standards. Remember, our microbiologists, chemists, engineers, and water quality scientists stand behind their water and their families drink it too. 



Bottled Water
	We now drink more bottled water than we do coffee or milk. About 30 years ago, the average person in Southern California drank six quarts of bottled water a year. Now the average person in Southern California drinks 29 gallons of bottled water each year. One well known economist said that, “the success of bottled water is one of capitalism’s great mysteries.” 	

	The water in at least 25% of the billions of bottles of water consumed in this country every year comes out of the same public reservoirs that send water to every tap from public drinking fountains to your bathroom sink. The water in Aquafina water bottles comes from the same sources as the humble (and cheap) tap water in Fresno, Detroit, and Wichita. Aquafina, which is owned by Pepsi, is the best-selling bottled water in the country. Dasani water has already been busted for its tap-water pedigree from pristine locales such as Queens, New York. Dasani, which is owned by Coca-Cola, is the nation’s second-best-selling water. 

	Crystal Geyser water comes out of the same Owens Valley well that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power draws from. Yosemite Water doesn’t come from Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Water comes from L.A.’s Highland Park, where there is a street named Yosemite. Some of L.A.’s Department of Water and Power biggest water customers are….bottled water companies. 

Why Pay More?
	Public water contamination in places like Milwaukee and Washington crowds out memories of the benzene that turned up in Perrier water bottles years ago. Remember, tap water and bottled water often comes from the same source and tap water may actually be safer than bottled water. Big city tap water is tested for bacteria at least 100 times a month; the FDA requires bottlers to test just once a week. Many high-end restaurants are now pouring tap water as is their “house brand”. 

	You can get at least 450 gallons of L.A. tap water for the $1.35 you’d pay for 20 ounces of Aquafina. Turn that around, and 20 ounces of L.A. tap water costs about one-twentieth of a cent. Would you pay $5 for a gallon of gas in a pretty container if you could get a plain-wrap gallon for half a penny? When it comes to water, that’s pretty much what we do. 
	

Conclusion
	Unfortunately, there will be less water to serve a growing population, so new water projects will be required to meet these demands. We will see more environmental regulation that will further diminish the availability of water supplies for agriculture and urban uses. We will probably see water transfers of conserved water from agricultural areas to urban areas. There will be more storage of water in environmentally preferred groundwater basins instead of reservoirs, although some existing reservoirs will get increased capacity. 

	As science continues to improve, we will see more expensive, higher quality water. We will be looking at possible contaminants in water at levels of parts per trillion, which is comparable to finding one second in 32,000 years! We will be replacing aging infrastructure in many of Orange County’s older cities, which will also increase the cost of water. There could be a day when urban runoff and storm runoff is purified for reuse. Conservation and water reuse will be the norm in the future, but the public should be prepared for a gradual increase in their monthly water bill.