FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – The Orange County Water District announced today that it will increase the amount of groundwater available from Orange County’s large groundwater basin from 316,000 in 2005-06 to 330,000 AFY (acre-foot is 326,000 gallons) for the upcoming year (2006-07) beginning in July.  Additionally, OCWD’s charge for groundwater will increase from $205 to $223 per acre-foot. The OCWD rate includes $22 per acre-foot to recover lost property tax revenues that continue to be taken by the state.

OCWD groundwater is approximately half the cost of imported water, $223 versus approximately $500 per acre-foot, which means groundwater is a significant value for the cities that lie over OCWD’s groundwater basin. The reason that groundwater use can be increased this year is due in part to the record rainfall during the winter of 2004 and 2005 that helped OCWD refill the basin.

“The groundwater basin helped us through a five-year drought that ended in the winter of 2005; we over drafted the basin to get through the drought but we’ve now largely replenished the basin to ensure meeting future demand,” said OCWD Board President Philip Anthony.  “With continued proper basin management we are now ready for the next drought emergency.”

Over the past 30 years, OCWD has doubled the annual yield from the basin through improved recharge water management– the ability to put more water back into the groundwater basin.  This has resulted in millions of dollars of annual savings to the residents within OCWD in the form of reduced water supply costs resulting in lower monthly water bills.

Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages the large groundwater basin that underlies North-Central Orange County that provides most of the water for 2.3 million citizens. OCWD is committed to constantly improving Orange County’s groundwater quality and reliability in an environmentally friendly manner. With years of prudent planning and careful investment, OCWD has doubled the yield of the groundwater basin. Recently, the basin, larger that the largest reservoir in Southern California, sustained the County through a five-year drought. OCWD has also spent millions of dollar on studies by outside experts to ensure the quality of our groundwater. We want to be your trusted source for water quality. We will continue to plan and invest in ways to get more water into and out of the basin. OCWD is a special district, separate from the County of Orange, that supplies to 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.