•HRES 1199 IH 
Whereas OCWD was created in 1933 by the California State 
Legislature’s passage of Senator N.T. Edwards’ SB 
1201, which was signed into law on June 14, 1933; 
Whereas OCWD was empowered to manage Orange County’s 
large groundwater basin, to protect the quality and quan-
tity of the groundwater, to conserve and manage ground-
water supplies, to protect Orange County’s water rights 
to the flow of the Santa Ana River, and to ensure that 
the water needs of the people of Orange County, who de-
pend on the groundwater basin, are provided for; 
Whereas in the 1950s, OCWD initiated the region’s first sus-
tained artificial recharge replenishment system, which 
today is one of the most sophisticated and efficient re-
charge systems in the country; 
Whereas in 1972, OCWD built the internationally-acclaimed 
Water Factory 21, the Nation’s first and largest waste-
water purification plant, to use reverse osmosis to purify 
sewer water for injection along the coast to prevent sea-
water intrusion; 
Whereas in 1989, OCWD published a comprehensive Ground-
water Management Plan for increasing water supplies, 
cleaning up contamination, and improving basin manage-
ment, which became the model for groundwater manage-
ment across the State; 
Whereas in 1991, OCWD’s Green Acres Project became oper-
ational as the Nation’s first landscape irrigation waste-
water treatment plant that provided water to local parks, 
golf courses, highway medians, and industry, freeing high 
quality drinking water for more valued uses in the arid 
Orange County; 
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•HRES 1199 IH 
Whereas in 2008, OCWD began operating the Groundwater 
Replenishment System, the world’s largest sewer water 
purification project of its kind built to protect ground-
water from seawater intrusion, delaying the need for an-
other ocean outfall and making the region less dependent 
on imported water from the San Joaquin-Delta and Colo-
rado Rivers by providing a new supply of high quality, lo-
cally controlled and energy efficient water to Orange 
County; 
Whereas OCWD has one of the best water quality monitoring 
and protection programs, testing for twice the amount of 
chemicals required by law, maintaining a proactive phi-
losophy of looking for emerging contaminants, and devel-
oping southern California’s largest constructed wetlands 
to naturally purify Santa Ana River flows into Orange 
County; 
Whereas OCWD has one of the highest financial ratings in 
the State, won every major water award, begun elimi-
nating the evasive arundo donax through its environ-
mental programs, and developed experimental wetlands to 
clean up dairy wastewater; and 
Whereas OCWD has also developed basin-cleaning vehicles to 
enhance recharge efficiency, sponsored the Nation’s larg-
est Children’s Water Education Festival, and brought 
back the least Bell’s vireo, an endangered California 
songbird: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives com-
mends the Orange County Water District and its employ-
ees for their sound financial management and innovative 
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•HRES 1199 IH 
groundwater management, water quality, water efficiency, 
and environmental programs, on its 75th anniversary. 
Æ 
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