CEE Seminar: Big, Bigger, Biggest – Tackling Three Impacts to Quality in the Orange County Groundwater Basin

Abstract: Orange County Water District is internationally recognized for its comprehensive groundwater management program, including implementation of the largest indirect potable reuse project. Despite its successes, OCWD is facing challenges to protecting and improving groundwater quality. Three different ongoing projects to address groundwater quality impacts will be highlighted, including the massive PFAS treatment project involving approximately 100 production wells, the South Basin Groundwater Protection Project to contain legacy industrial contaminants and the Sunset Gap seawater intrusion barrier study. The PFAS project implementation has been remarkably fast given the number of wells impacted, while the other two projects required multi-year investigations to characterize the hydrogeology and extent of impacted groundwater quality and development of numerical groundwater models before engineering solutions could be evaluated. The Orange County groundwater basin is but one of over 200 basins in California that have been required to be properly managed by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. The scale of this regulation will require a large specialized workforce that is educated and skilled in the water disciplines.

Bio:  Roy Herndon is the chief hydrogeologist at the Orange County Water District and directs the activities of OCWD’s Hydrogeology Department, including numerical groundwater modeling, seawater intrusion barrier performance and groundwater quality improvement programs and investigations. He has been a practicing hydrogeologist for 39 years and served on advisory panels for entities including the California Department of Water Resources and the Republic of Singapore.He holds a B.A. degree in geology from The Colorado College, a M.S. degree in hydrology and water resources from the University of Arizona and is a California licensed geologist and certified hydrogeologist.