News

Key Infrastructure Investments Paying Off

The Moulton Niguel Water District was disconnected from our primary source of water for seven days in early January while a key regional treatment plant in Yorba Linda underwent planned annual maintenance. Thanks to the District’s recent key infrastructure investments, the impact of the shutdown went unnoticed by our customers.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Robert B. Diemer Treatment Plant in Yorba Linda supplies most of the water for south Orange County, and when it shuts for a week each winter, local water providers like MNWD must rely on water stored in reservoirs to meet local demand.

In past years, the Diemer shutdown has prompted requests for customers to significantly curtail their water use, even eliminating all outdoor watering, to make sure there was enough water for everyone. Such requests were not necessary this year because MNWD has taken several steps recently to improve our water supply reliability, which allowed us to withstand the shutdown without incident.

MNWD partnered with other local water providers on the Upper Chiquita Reservoir, which was completed in October and provides the District an additional week of new emergency water storage. The Irvine Ranch Water District Interconnection now links South County water providers to groundwater supplies in central and north Orange County, which is an important new emergency water source. Also, the Water-Budget-Based Rate Structure that went into effect last summer has greatly increased water efficiency throughout our service area.

Combined, these efforts have greatly increased the District’s ability to provide our customers a reliable supply of water throughout the year. But our region is still dependent on water delivered from other parts of the state, so we must continue to be as efficient as possible with our resources. That’s also why MNWD will continue to make strategic investments in our water infrastructure, so we are prepared should an unplanned event interrupt water deliveries for much longer than the week we just experienced.

###