The Orange County Water District (OCWD) and the City of Garden Grove, California, in May began operating one of four treatment plants being constructed in Garden Grove to remove per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from local well water. PFAS are a group of thousands of manmade,Read More

By Melanie Mow Schumacher, Dave Carlson & Ashu Shirolkar Water management strategies tend to evolve gradually with slowly changing community needs. That’s rare in California, where continued population growth and prolonged drought exacerbated by climate change have sparked dramatic change, through initiatives such as theRead More

Recently, the City of Pomona, Calif., got one step closer to winning its 10-year lawsuit against the U.S. subsidiary of a Chilean fertilizer manufacturer for contaminating the Southern California city’s drinking water. The defendant had sold Chilean fertilizer used in the area’s citrus orchards whichRead More

In December, the City of Camarillo, Calif., announced the start-up and commissioning of its North Pleasant Valley (NPV) Groundwater Desalter Plant, moving the city closer to a more self-reliant, affordable potable water future. For nearly two decades, groundwater quality in the northern portion of theRead More

After a week-long trial, a federal jury has awarded the City of Pomona $48 million in damages from SQM North America Corp., a subsidiary of a large Chilean mining company, for the costs of cleanup of the toxic chemical perchlorate from the city’s groundwater supply. Fertilizer sold byRead More

Groundwater Remediation Achieved through a 25-Year CERCLA-to-Drinking Water Program Of the many responsibilities with which a water utility is regularly tasked, ensuring public health is always at the forefront. In fact, public health is tied to just about everything a water utility does. But sometimes,Read More