FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – Over the past two years Nathan Scheevel has been responsible for overseeing the Orange County Water District’s (OCWD) basin cleaning vehicle program (BCV). The BCVs help clean the bottom of percolation basins to increase the amount of water filtered into deep aquifers in Orange County’s groundwater basin. Scheevel’s duties include supervising four BCV operators, maintaining the BCVs, troubleshooting operational problems, compiling performance data, making repairs, and developing modifications to the BCV to improve basin cleaning.

The shallow basin BCV is constructed on a largely untested platform (floating barges), Scheevel’s excellent mechanical skills have been critical in keeping the BCVs in operation. He has had to address a host of mechanical issues and has found many ways to improve on the existing design to make the BCV's more efficient and require less maintenance, while maintaining high basin percolation rates. Scheevel has maintained a high level of performance despite attending school full time to become an engineer.

“Nate’s unique skill set and commitment to the BCV program has allowed the program to get off the ground and start showing the important benefit of increased percolation,” said Virginia Grebbien, general manager. “We are going to miss Nate’s talent and drive as he is headed to the University of California at Berkeley, one of the nation’s top engineering schools, to complete his degree.”

The Employee of the Month and Year Program was established to recognize outstanding OCWD employees and to acknowledge their contributions to the District. The board of directors hopes to encourage quality work, continuous improvement, teamwork, efficiency, customer service and a high level of dedication. The program recognizes that OCWD employees are the source of OCWD’s strength, reputation and innovation.

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.