The RA was approved after an extensive and transparent process to inform all parcel owners and groundwater pumping rights holders in the WRD service area. Over 800,000 notices were sent to every record owner of every parcel of real property within its jurisdiction that services 4 million residents in 43 cities covering over 420 square miles.

WRD has garnered multiple awards for its budget and financial reporting processes over the past 10 years and was recently awarded the highest recognition in the area of government and financial accounting by the prestigious Government Financial Officers Association – a feat unmatched by most public agencies.

Groundwater accounts for 40% of the overall water supply in WRD’s service area, and is about one-fourth the cost of the alternative –imported water from the environmentally sensitive Bay Delta and the drought plagued Colorado River.  Moreover, WRD continues to make significant progress on its effort to develop local water replenishment sources to eliminate our need for these expensive and unreliable imported water supplies.  This effort, known as WRD’s WIN Program, or Water Independence Now, will be complete in approximately 5-years, and upon completion will assure a completely locally sustainable groundwater supply for the residents within the WRD service area and will minimize future rate increases.  The new RA is critical to helping achieve WRD’s goal for 100% independence from costly and unreliable imported water.

“This Replenishment Assessment allows us to continue to develop a safe, affordable and reliable groundwater supply for our region and our future,” said Albert Robles, WRD Board President.  “WRD is very aware and sensitive to the region’s economic state, and accordingly has worked very hard to minimize the increase by reducing its own costs by almost $3 Million dollars over the last two years to help offset increasing water costs to WRD.”  Robles added, “Ratepayers have made it clear that they support the need for a local sustainable groundwater source, and this Replenishment Assessment allows us to continue providing the best service to our customers and will help us build a local sustainable, long-term solution for the water needs of those in our Service Area.”

For more information, please visit WRD at www.wrd.org

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Saturday, March 16, 2013, the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) kicked off its 6th Annual Groundwater Festival “Treasure Beneath Our Feet” at its headquarters in Lakewood, California, with nearly 3,000 community participants enjoying the festivities and engaging the festival’s presenters.

“WRD is proud to host this successful community event that raises the public’s awareness about our most fundamental local public resource – our groundwater,” said Albert Robles, WRD’s Board President. “As the cost of imported water from the Colorado River and Northern California continue to rise, our reliance on our local groundwater supply becomes even more important in keeping water affordable. And this event helps to highlight the need to protect our precious public resource.”

On hand were more than 40 non-profit, federal, state and local government agencies that provided interactive water conservation, environmental and eco-gardening information and lessons. The Aquarium of the Pacific, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the Southeast Community Development Center showcased a mobile aquarium, a live starfish exhibit and WRD’s award winning ECO Gardener “Design your own Landscape” program.

Mr. Wilbert from Long Beach won this year’s WRD Groundwater Festival grand prize, an LG Electronics High Efficiency Front Load Washer.

ABC7 Eyewitness News Reporter Rudabeh Shahbazi served as the 2013 Master of Ceremonies during the WRD Groundwater Ambassador Awards presentation. This year, the WRD Board of Directors presented the award to Congressman Alan Lowenthal for leading the charge to solve of the region’s toughest water challenges, increasing water conservation and for his unrelenting efforts to protect and increase our regional groundwater supply.

The WRD Groundwater Festival, “Treasure Beneath Our Feet,” coincides with National Groundwater Awareness Week, which runs from March 10 – 16, which recognizes the importance of groundwater as a indispensible and renewable resource across the nation.  Locally, groundwater is vital to south Los Angeles County because it is responsible for providing almost half of the water supply to the region’s 4 million residents, which represent 10 percent of the State’s population.

The WRD Groundwater Festival event was made possible through the generous financial support of Aquarium of the Pacific, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, Golden State Water Company, KABC Eyewitness News, the Metropolitan Water District, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Starbucks Coffee, West Basin Municipal Water District, Park Water, Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, CH2MHill and many more

For more information on WRD and the Groundwater Festival “Treasure Beneath Our Feet” event please visit www.wrd.org.

LJVL AWTF Groundbreaking Ceremony

Officials with the Water Replenishment District (WRD) were joined on January 28, 2013, by local dignitaries, including Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), to break ground on a project to put more recycled water to good use – this time to act as a barrier to protect South Los Angeles County’s critical groundwater supplies.

The latest WRD project will expand the agency’s existing Leo J. Vander Lans Advanced Water Treatment Facility in Long Beach to more than double the amount of recycled water produced by the facility to 8,000 acre feet, or 2.6 billion gallons, per year. The facility takes treated recycled water (disinfected tertiary treated effluent) coming out of the Long Beach Water Reclamation plant and gives it an extra state-of-the-art “scrubbing” using microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet advanced oxidation. At the end of the day, the water coming out of the Vander Lans Facility is of near-distilled water quality.

“The advanced treated recycled water from an expanded Vander Lans plant will be used to protect our groundwater and drinking water supplies from seawater contamination,” said Albert Robles, president of the elected WRD board of directors.

“It’s a great project for the environment because it squeezes every last drop of value out of the water that’s already in the area,” continued Robles.  “This project is part of the District’s Water Independence Now, or WIN, Project which represents WRD’s vision to be independent of imported water and for our groundwater basins to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. With this project, WRD will have a reliable and safe source of water that’s locally available.”

WRD currently buys about 3,000 acre feet, or nearly 1 billion gallons, of water imported from Northern California or the Colorado River every year to keep the Alamitos Seawater Barrier intact. The barrier prevents seawater from intruding into and contaminating the underground groundwater basins.

WRD also recognized the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources for their support as funding partners of the project. Additionally, special recognition was given to Mr. William Steele and Mr. Dennis Wolfe with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Southern California office for their commitment and support of the Leo J. Vander Lans Facility over the past decade.

Workshop Overview

Problems with well performance are usually preventable, often start with well construction and development, and are then exacerbated by water quality conditions, well operation and rehabilitation efforts. This workshop will discuss the key factors affecting well performance including well design, initial screen development, biological and mechanical plugging and well rehabilitation methods. An asset management-based approach is described that helps prioritize maintenance decisions and long-term well field operation.

Workshop flyer>>>

Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom Commends WRD for Its Commitment and Achievements

On October 25, 2012, the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) held its annual State of the District Address to a standing-room-only crowd of approximately 300 guests. WRD Board President Albert Robles and WRD General Manager Robb Whitaker presented the accomplishments the District has achieved over the past year to elected officials, water industry advocates, environmental leaders, and members of the public. Innovative water programs and advanced engineering projects are enabling WRD to increase locally sustainable groundwater supplies and moving the District closer to completely eliminating the demand for expensive water that must be imported from the Colorado River and the environmentally sensitive Bay Delta to keep local groundwater basins at sustainable levels.

“WRD experienced a fantastic year of accomplishments that included legislative success affirming our lead role as the region’s groundwater manager; implementation of programs that have increased water self-reliance; an historic labor agreement; and above all, avoiding water rate increases for our stakeholders.” said Board President Robles. “And we were especially honored to be recognized by Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom who noted WRD’s priority on water self-reliance as a leading example on how to develop local solutions to a big challenge and not waiting around for someone else to fix it.”

In his remarks to an enthusiastic and engaged crowd of supporters following President Robles’ address, Lt. Governor Newsom began his remarks by telling the audience, “I was trying to figure out where the heck I was because we’re definitely not in Sacramento after hearing a speech like that.” He went on to note that WRD’s groundbreaking water reuse efforts were a “devotion to an extraordinary cause and vision that goes back to a time when California was in the ‘future’ business.” Newsom explained that the State has been talking about a comprehensive solution for water for his entire life but that “we’re stuck in an old mindset where we’re still fighting yesterday’s battles. Meanwhile, WRD is stepping up, and stepping in and solving problems.”

The event also marked WRD’s 50th Anniversary of recycled water use for groundwater recharge. This celebration honored WRD’s pioneering efforts that have allowed the agency to increase groundwater supplies with recycled water amid the ever increasing costs associated with diverting water from outside the region, a major contributor of increased costs to ratepayers. Consistent with WRD’s commitment to environmental sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council was also present to award WRD the LEED Gold Certification for its Lakewood headquarters building. The designation makes the District one of a handful of statewide water agencies to achieve this level of green building recognition. Assembly Majority Whip Roger Hernandez summed up the District’s phenomenal accomplishments by proclaiming “you’re not just dreamers, you’re doers, and you’re an example. You see a lot of communities that are doing things the old way and then you see come communities and local governance teams trailblazing; and WRD is definitely setting the tone for California, and you see it happening in a tremendous way.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJsNuMaQZR0&feature=relmfu

Students from Germany's Darmstadt University of Technology

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of hosting a groundwater tour for a group of environmental engineering students from the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.  The students enjoyed a tour of the WRD’s Leo J. Vander Lans Advanced Water Treatment Facility in Long Beach and a visit to the San Gabriel Coastal Spreading Basin in Pico Rivera.

The students were very interested in how WRD manages the groundwater supplies of south Los Angeles county and have returned to Germany with knowledge and appreciation of the interesting and unique water challenges our region faces every day.

We wish these students well in their studies, their lives, and their future careers in the environmental sciences.

The more we share, the more we know.

The Water Replenishment District of Southern California has received a 2012 Special Recognition Award from the National Ground Water Association.

The Special Recognition Award is presented to an individual or organization that demonstrates dedication, service, and commitment to the groundwater industry and community through involvement and achievement on a local or regional level.

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To reduce its use of imported potable water, the District is now in the process of expanding the production capacity of its Leo J. Vander Lans Water Treatment Facility in Long Beach, from 3 MGD
(11,355 m³/d) to 8 MGD (30,280 m³/d). In operation since 2005, the facility is one of the four permitted indirect potable reuse (IPR) projects using advanced treatment for groundwater recharge.

The Vander Lans facility currently receives tertiary effluent from the Los Angeles County Sanitation District’s (LACSD) Long Beach Water Reclamation Plant. To meet its expansion requirements, the District may also require tertiary effluent from LACSD’s Los Coyotes Water Reclamation Plant.

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In 2008 the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) adopted a resolution to establish project labor agreements (PLA) for District construction projects.  Today’s signed agreement formalizes that resolution.

“This project labor agreement represents WRD’s commitment to ensuring optimum productivity and high quality District construction projects while also guaranteeing that working men and women WITHIN OUR SERVICE AREA are provided good paying jobs,” said WRD Board President, Albert Robles. “Our Board is proud that this PLA will create local hiring preferences and thereby keep dollars circulating throughout our region.”

The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council represent a highly trained workforce of approximately 150,000 members, as well as an active apprentice program.

“We are proud to be working with WRD,” said Robbie Hunter, the Executive Secretary for the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. “Partnerships like this increase productivity in the region and are a driving force for the local economy.”

“Project labor agreements, like the one we signed today, raise the quality of life for workers by providing good paying jobs and benefits that help sustain their families,” added Robles.  “The local hiring component in the agreement will result in more dollars being spent within our communities and will contribute in strengthening our local economy.”

The primary mission of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC) is to improve the health, jobs safety and economic conditions of the members of its affiliates, and of all working men, women and minors in the construction industry by all lawful means.