Groundwater information pertaining to GKN Aerospace hazmat situation in Garden Grove

The Orange County Water District (OCWD) wants to assure the public that the Orange County Groundwater Basin has not been impacted by the recent chemical incident involving GKN in Garden Grove and that groundwater remains safe.

OCWD is coordinating closely with responding agencies to monitor the situation. County, state, and local agencies are actively working to prevent contaminants from entering the environment, including the groundwater basin. Based on information provided by responding agencies, the water currently flowing from the site consists primarily of municipal water used by firefighters to cool chemical tanks. Runoff from the site is being conveyed through concrete-lined channels and is not expected to impact the groundwater basin. Sampling and laboratory testing of runoff water are ongoing, and results to date indicate the water is safe.

OCWD will continue to perform regular monitoring and testing of groundwater quality throughout the basin. If any detection were to exceed a regulatory limit, the affected production well would be taken offline immediately. OCWD will continue rigorous water quality monitoring to help ensure the safety and reliability of the groundwater basin serving 2.5 million residents.

Frequently asked questions

The Orange County Water District manages and protects the Orange County Groundwater Basin that underlies north and central Orange County, from which 19 cities and retail water districts draw their water supply. The basin is the main source of water for 2.5 million people. OCWD is a water wholesaler. We do not supply water directly to consumers.   

Your water retailer is dependent on where you live. The City of Garden Grove supplies water to residents living near the 12100 block of Western Avenue, the site of GKN Aerospace. The sources of water to the City of Garden Grove are primarily groundwater pumped from city wells and a much lesser amount of imported surface water from the Colorado River and Northern California.

Water in the groundwater basin undergoes natural filtration. Drinking water wells draw water from the principal aquifer of the Orange County Groundwater Basin which is typically 400 to 1,000 feet below the ground surface. 

For a list of water retailers in Orange County, please visit How water works in OC – Orange County Water District.

OCWD implements proactive, diverse and comprehensive groundwater and surface water monitoring programs to continually generate real-time data. The District owns and operates a series of monitoring and injection wells throughout the region to collect water samples, measure groundwater levels and help prevent seawater intrusion.  

OCWD tests water from approximately 1,500 locations throughout the basin, analyzes more than 20,000 samples each year, and reports more than 400,000 results.  

The District tests for more than 500 compounds, many more than is required by state and federal laws and regulations. OCWD can monitor contaminants in its groundwater basin down to one part per trillion. That is like looking for one drop of sand in an Olympic-size swimming pool. 

OCWD provides regional testing for local drinking water providers to help ensure compliance with monitoring and reporting requirements mandated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. OCWD samples water from drinking water wells and monitoring wells in Garden Grove, and the city conducts additional testing. 

The County of Orange is performing sampling and laboratory testing of runoff water from the incident at GKN Aerospace.Sampling and laboratory testing of runoff water are ongoing, and results to date indicate the water does not contain methyl methacrylate (MMA).

The Orange County Groundwater Basin has not been impacted by the recent chemical incident involving GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove.

OCWD will continue rigorous monitoring to help ensure the safety and reliability of the groundwater basin serving 2.5 million residents.

Water supply and quality in areas near GKN Aerospace remain safe and reliable.

OCWD and the water retailers it serves provide some of the cleanest drinking water in the world. Your water is constantly monitored and tested to ensure that when it is delivered to you, it meets all state and federal drinking water standards. In the unlikely event it ever does not meet standards, the affected well would be taken offline immediately, and drinking water would be provided from a different well or source.

Water used at the site to cool the tank is municipal water from the City of Garden Grove.

Based on information provided by responding agencies, the water currently flowing from the site consists primarily of municipal water used by firefighters to cool chemical tanks. This water is flowing into a concrete-lined stormwater channel and is not expected to impact the groundwater basin.