Sustain SoCal brings together top local water conservation experts

CEO Kitcher Cites Local Technology Use

The statewide drought is one of California’s environmental nightmares, but Sustain SoCal Chief Executive Scott Kitcher says Orange County’s water supply is actually in comparatively good shape thanks to local conservation and recycling efforts.

The Irvine tech-focused organization held a webinar “Water Solutions 6” via Zoom on Aug. 26, drawing more than 100 participants, most of them from Orange County and Southern California.

The webinar lineup included Dennis Calvert, CEO for $45 million-valued environmental technology firm BioLargo of Westminster (OTX: BLGO), and Duane Cave, director of the Moulton Niguel Water District.

The keynote speaker was Joaquin Esquivel, the chairman of California’s Water Resources Control Board.

Sustain SoCal, a nonprofit organization located at UCI Beall Applied Innovation, accelerates cleantech economic growth (energy, transportation and water) and sustainability initiatives through innovation, collaboration and education.

Sustain SoCal’s sixth annual water event “focused on exploring real life strategies and innovations in conservation, reuse, desal, water quality and big data in Southern California and the surrounding region.”

Tech Paying Off

“We have tremendous assets here in Orange County,” Kitcher told the Business Journal the day after the webinar. “I think some of our agencies and districts are out in front of the nation.”

“Many have cutting-edge technology that they’ve employed and made life a little easier for us Orange County,” according to Kitcher.

“If you look north and south of us and inland of us, they’re struggling,” according to Kitcher.

The Mercury News reported last month that San Jose could soon become the largest city in California where residents are given monthly allotments of water with financial penalties for exceeding them.

Kitcher said nothing like that is happening in Orange County “largely by virtue of the fact that some of our agencies have been for years now employing these technologies in water conservation and reuse.” As a result of the reuse technology, the county has reserves of drinking water, he said, and gets water imported from other parts of the state and other states.

Leading the Pack

Among the local recycling efforts, he cited Santa Margarita Water District’s Trampas Canyon Reservoir & Dam in Rancho Mission Viejo.

The Trampas website says “it is a smart, eco-enhancing resource that captures and stores highly treated wastewater so that it can be used for irrigation instead of drinking water.”

The South Coast Water District’s proposed Doheny desalination plant, which aims to turn ocean water into drinking water by removing salt, would be an extra added resource if it is built, says Kitcher, though the plan has run into intense opposition and skepticism.

He also noted Moulton Niguel Water District, OC Water District and the Metropolitan Water District for local forwardthinking on water supplies.

“Generally speaking in Orange County we’re out in front of a lot of other counties,” Kitcher said

“We’ve been working on this for over six years, and the issues are now finally getting more general public notice.”

Pragmatic Solutions

The webinar was designed to seek “pragmatic solutions to help assure sufficient and affordable supplies of water in our region,” including pilot projects and trials. The event looked at “what has actually been adopted and being employed.”

Some other points from the webinar:

■ Megan Plumlee, the research director of the Orange County Water District, presented “encouraging results” from the authority’s study on the treatment and removal of PFAS—a group of contaminants and harmful chemicals found in groundwater.

■ Cristina Ahmadpour, president of water resources company Isle Inc., said the major trends in the water sector are: aging infrastructure; water quality; water conservation and sustainability and the impact of COVID-19 on supplies.

■ Brian Probolsky, president of the Moulton Niguel Water District, presented on his District’s Smart Meter debut in South Orange County and noted that 75% of the water demand there is met with imported water.