California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Orange County Water District (OCWD) has been named the 2022 winner of the Groundwater Resources Association’s (GRA) Kevin J. Neese award for its PFAS treatment program.
“Our work to protect local water supplies and remove PFAS detected in the Orange County Groundwater Basin remains a top priority,” said OCWD President Steve Sheldon. “Thank you to the Groundwater Resources Association for recognizing our proactive and swift efforts to address PFAS in Orange County.”
OCWD was recognized for its efforts to remove PFAS from local groundwater including launching the nation’s largest pilot treatment project in December 2019 to constructing PFAS treatment facilities to restore the impacted drinking water supply. Today, five treatment plants for the cities of Fullerton and Garden Grove and the Serrano and Yorba Linda water districts are operational, including the nation’s largest ion exchange PFAS treatment plant at the Yorba Linda Water District headquarters. Over the next two years, 31 additional treatment facilities will be built and brought online.
OCWD previously won the GRA Kevin J. Neese award in 2008 for its world-renowned Groundwater Replenishment System. Past Kevin J. Neese award winners include former Governor Jerry Brown, the California Department of Water Resources and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Land Subsidence Monitoring Team.
