Out in the Community
As part of its standard to forge and maintain long-term, positive and proactive relationships with members of the local community and greater water industry and to be transparent about its operations and programs, OCWD board members and staff speak regularly before groups and at events. We recently participated in the following:
- OCWD hosted guests of the Canadian Consulate for the Canadian Innovation in Water and Power Southern California Roadshow.
- Executive Director of Water Quality and Technical Resources Jason Dadakis and Director of Water Production/GWRS Mehul Patel gave a presentation at the WateReuse California Annual Conference in Monterey titled “Practical Operational Approaches to Meet Pathogen LRV Requirements for GWRS.”
- More than 70 OCWD staff volunteered over a two-day period at the Children’s Water Education Festival on the campus of UC Irvine.
- Mehul Patel served as a moderator on various panels and GWRS Project Manager Sandy Scott-Roberts spoke about the GWRS Final Expansion challenges at the American Water Works Association 2018 Membrane Technology Conference & Exposition.
- Chief Hydrogeologist Roy Herndon presented an overview of the local OCWD water supply framework, groundwater basin management and hydrogeology to about 40 people attending UC Irvine’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for continuing education.
- Roy Herndon gave a presentation on the importance of protecting the quality of the Orange Groundwater Basin to an audience of environmental consultants and state regulatory agency staff at the Association for Environmental and Health Sciences Foundation Conference in San Diego.
- Research Director Megan Plumlee provided an overview of the R&D Department’s NDMA research, speaking at the Orange County ACS Environmental Group meeting in Irvine on Minimizing NDMA Formation during Advanced Treatment for Water Reuse.
- Scientist/Process Specialist Han Gu presented his research at the WateReuse California Annual Conference in Monterey, giving a talk titled “Pilot Evaluation of Closed-Circuit Reverse Osmosis for RO Concentrate Treatment” for a project in collaboration with Desalitech, Jacobs, and AWC.
- Postdoctoral Research Associate Shannon Roback presented at the 254th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition in New Orleans on High Frequency and Near Real-Time Monitoring of N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) Using a Novel Extraction-Free Chemiluminescence-based Method. Study co-authors included Megan Plumlee and OCWD Principal Scientist Ken Ishida.
- Recharge Planning Manager Adam Hutchinson chaired the 16th Biennial Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (BSMAR 16) in San Diego. This event was hosted by the Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA) in collaboration with the Arizona Hydrological Society.
- Principal Hydrogeologist Dave Mark, Principal Scientist Menu Leddy and Senior Communications Specialist Diane Pinnick served as judges at the OC Science & Engineering Fair.
- Engineering staff presented about water filtration and judged student-made water filters for how effectively they remove turbidity at Walker Junior High School in the city of La Palma. This outreach effort puts staff in contact with about 400 students, not only educating them about water, but encouraging the students to pursue technical careers.