FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. - Orange County Water District (OCWD) and Orange County Sanitation District’s (OCSD) communications team recently received the top honor of 2004 Public Education “Program of the Year” from the WateReuse Association for work on the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System. The GWR System’s public information program was recognized for its excellence in community relations and public information and outreach. The winner was announced at the WateReuse Association’s 2004 Annual Symposium last week in Phoenix, Arizona.

“We are truly honored to be recognized for our efforts in public outreach,” said Denis Bilodeau, president of the OCWD Board of Directors. “From the beginning, the boards of directors from both agencies have been committed to a comprehensive public outreach program to ensure all residents in our service areas are informed about the GWR System. We attribute much of our success in moving this project forward and gaining public support to our outreach efforts.”

The GWR System, a state-of-the-art water purification project, takes highly treated sewer water that is currently released into the ocean and purifies it using the same technologies that purify baby food, fruit juices, medicines and bottled water. The GWR System will create a new supply of extremely high-quality water for use in an expanded seawater intrusion barrier and to augment groundwater supplies for north and central Orange County residents.

The WateReuse Association is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help its members create new sources of high-quality water through water reuse.  Each year, WateReuse recognizes a public education program that achieves outstanding results communicating with the public about water-related issues.

“Based on our research, we know that once people are informed about the need for the project; the cost and energy savings; and understand that GWR System produced water will be as pure as bottled water, they are very supportive of the project,” said Carol Beekman, OCSD director of communications and administrative services.   “That’s why we remain dedicated to informing the public about local water issues and the GWR System.  Our goal is to talk to every group in Orange County and to reach each resident personally and give them the opportunity to have their questions answered.”

To effectively inform the public about the need for the GWR System and that the project will produce extremely high-quality, reliable water source; the agencies have been implementing a comprehensive public information program.  The program includes media relations, community relations, speakers’ bureau, government outreach, business outreach, health/medical outreach, environmental outreach, advertising, business outreach and minority outreach.

GWR System public outreach accomplishments include:

• More than 700 presentations given to civic and community organizations
• Consistent media coverage including national news stories in The Wall Street Journal, ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and MSNBC.com
• Comprehensive outreach to Orange County’s diverse communities including project information provided in Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean.
• Development of project Web site, www.gwrsystem.com
• Project video produced by Huell Howser, host of “California’s Gold”
• Received more than 300 letters of endorsement from environmental groups, public health/medical experts, elected officials, chambers of commerce, community organizations and parent teacher associations.

More information on the Groundwater Replenishment System is available at www.gwrsystem.com.

The Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, a new high-tech water purification system, will produce water similar in quality to bottled water. Once complete, the GWR System will:

• Help with future water reliability in Orange County and throughout Southern California.
• Help provide reliable water during future droughts.
• Save energy by producing very high quality water for one-half the energy that it takes to bring water here from Northern California.
• Produce such high quality water that it will help “soften” the content of the groundwater basin, which eventually will mean longer appliance life.

 

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Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages and protects the large groundwater basin underlying north and central Orange County. OCWD is a special district, separate from the County of Orange or any city government. It was created by the California Legislature in 1933 to oversee Orange County's groundwater basin. The groundwater basin supplies more than half of the water needs for 2.3 million residents in the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster and Yorba Linda.

Orange County Sanitation District is responsible for safely collecting, treating, and disposing wastewater. It is a special district, separate from the County of Orange or any city government, established under the State Health and Safety Code, to provide sewerage service to a specific geographic area. The Orange County Sanitation District is governed by a 25-member board of directors comprised of representatives of each local sewering agency or cities within our 470-square-mile service area. For more information, visit www.ocsd.com.