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 Welcome to Orange County Water District Online
Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages the large groundwater basin that provides reliable, high quality groundwater to 20 cities and water agencies and their 2.3 million customers in northern and central Orange County. OCWD is committed to constantly improving Orange County’s groundwater quality and reliability in an environmentally friendly way. With years of sound planning and appropriate investment in the groundwater basin, OCWD has more than doubled its output of water. The basin, which is larger than the largest reservoir in Southern California, has helped Orange County weather multi-year droughts in Southern California. It also provides an emergency back up supply of water for citizens living in south Orange County.
Our water quality and water research laboratories are some of the finest in the state, especially since opening the new expanded, state-of-the-art Advanced Water Quality Assurance Laboratory in October 2009. We have also worked with outside water quality and health experts to ensure that the groundwater we provide is safe and healthy. We want to be your trusted source for high quality water.
As arid Orange County continues to grow and be challenged by increasing demand and constrained imported water supplies, we are planning and investing in ways to get more water into and out of the groundwater basin. The Groundwater Replenishment System went on-line in January 2008 and is a reliable water supply to prevent seawater intrusion and to recharge our groundwater basin. We are very proud of this visionary water project and the high quality water it produces – better than bottled water. I encourage you to read about this exciting project at www.gwrsystem.com. If you have any questions or would like more information about the Orange County Water District, please call (714) 378-3200 or e-mail us at info@ocwd.com.
Sincerely,
Michael R. Markus, P.E.
General Manager
Orange County Water District
About Mike Markus
When Michael R. Markus, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE was named General Manager of the Orange County Water District (OCWD) in September 2007, he became only the sixth general manager in the District’s 74-year history. With more than 30 years of experience, Mike is well known for his expertise in construction management, planning and water resource management.
Mike joined OCWD in 1988 as construction manager and for the first 14 years of his career at the District oversaw construction of many of the water facilities OCWD depends upon today to refill and manage the groundwater basin. In 2002 he was given the responsibility to manage the implementation of the $480 million Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) program. This program included a $35 million design effort and the construction of seven individual projects, which amounted to approximately $400 million. The largest of the projects was the $300 million Advanced Water Purification Facility. This facility is a 70 million gallon per day advanced membrane reclamation facility, which utilizes microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide addition to purify secondary treated wastewater to near distilled water quality. This water is then put back into the groundwater basin providing enough new water for over 500,000 people. In 2004, Mike was promoted to assistant general manager overseeing water production and groundwater recharge operations, in addition to serving as program manager for the GWRS. Under his leadership, the GWRS garnered twenty-one awards, including the prestigious American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2009 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award for the year’s most outstanding national engineering project, and the Stockholm 2008 Industry Water Award for the year’s most outstanding international water project.
Prior to OCWD, Mike spent two years with John Carollo Engineers and eight years with Peter Kiewit Sons’ Co. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a master’s in civil engineering from the University of Southern California. He is a registered Civil Engineer in the state of California. Mike was named one of the Top 25 Newsmakers of 2007 by the Engineering News-Record and received the international 2009 Said Khoury Award for Engineering Construction Excellence.
The Orange County Water District manages the large groundwater basin that underlies northern and central Orange County that provides most of the water for more than 2.3 million citizens. The District is committed to enhancing Orange County’s groundwater quality and reliability in an environmentally friendly manner. OCWD is a special district, separate from the County of Orange, which supplies water to retailers in the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, 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. |