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Your first thought when reading this notice is, "What is the Backflow Program and do these changes affect me?" Please read on and we will explain the changes we are making to this important program that protects the quality of the water both in your home and in the water system itself. Your home may be one of the approximately 90 homes within our District that has a "Backflow Device" also called a "water system protective device." To understand why a backflow device is necessary, let me explain a little about how a water system works. Your drinking water is pushed from the district's water main into your property’s plumbing by pressure and it should only flow in one direction. Sometimes, due to pressure changes in pipes, the water can flow backwards into your water line or district water lines and could contaminate the public water supply with human waste or chemicals. When can this backwards (or backflow) occur? In properties that have multiple water lines, such as those that have fire sprinklers in the house, or have a separate water line to a swimming pool. It can also happen if the outdoor irrigation system is accidentally "cross-connected" to the indoor plumbing system by someone that doesn't understand plumbing. To protect against this contamination, a specialized backflow preventer valve is installed at strategic locations in the plumbing system wherever there is a risk of contaminated fluids entering the water supply pipes. Because these valves use moving parts, they are often required to be inspected or tested periodically. For many years, customers were required to annually retain a certified backflow tester to inspect and test the backflow devices, and if they passed, send the certification to us. If they didn't pass, the customer arranged the repairs and then had the unit retested and then sent the certification - this work had to be completed between February 1st and March 31st. This process was difficult for some customers and several asked if the District could help them with completing the requirements. Last year, the District conducted a pilot study; the study included 1) offering to do the testing for customers for $27.00 and 2) conducting a quality review of the outside firms that were hired by other customers to perform testing. The majority of customers chose to have the District perform the testing and were happy with the process. While some of the devices failed the test and had to be repaired (which was still the responsibility of the customer), the fact that they were not charged again for retesting was a benefit over using an outside contractor. With regards to the second part of the pilot program - reviewing the quality of the tests performed by the outside plumbing contractors, a disturbing trend was present: almost half of the recently tested devices failed when we tested them. Based upon this, at their December 18, 2019 Meeting, our Board decided that District staff would now perform all backflow testing. What does this mean for our Backflow Customers? This process will be much easier - you don't need to contact a backflow certified tester, you don't need to arrange to be home to have the test done, and you won't need to send us the certificate if the device passes - we will provide you with a copy as well as the Orange County Health Care Agency. You will be billed a fee of $28.60 (Fiscal Year 2020's fee) regardless of how many times your device needs to be tested. You will still be responsible for having your device repaired within three (3) days of being notified of the failed test, and the cost of these repairs are the customer's responsibility, however as we noted previously, you will not be charged for the retest. We appreciate your support for and compliance with the Backflow Program, and we hope that this information helps you understand this important program that is used to protect our water system from contamination. Best Regards, Lisa Ohlund General Manager

On September 15, 2016, the EOCWD Board of Directors approved a series of 5 rate changes between 2016 and 2021. This is the fourth of those rate increases. At East Orange County Water District, our rates reflect the true cost of providing water service to the community and ensuring long-term financial stability, allowing us to maintain the same level of reliable service that our customers have received for the past 59 years. We greatly appreciate the community’s stewardship and your continued water conservation efforts. Fixed and Volumetric Rates Increase Breakdown

With the change of season, 2 day-a-week watering is now in effect. The new schedule began on November 1 and continues through March 31, 2019. To learn more about conservation and fabulous landscaping ideas, click here.

The East Orange County Water District (EOCWD) is embarking on a planning process to prepare for the impacts of natural hazards. “This plan represents an opportunity for us to work with our neighbors and prepare a detailed, multi-disaster plan, and to identify what steps we can take in advance to mitigate impacts from those disasters,” said Lisa Ohlund, EOCWD’s general manager. In response to federal mandates in the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-390), EOCWD applied for and was awarded a planning grant funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The planning process is expected to take six months to complete. During this process, residents and officials from neighboring agencies will be asked to contribute by sharing local knowledge of the area’s vulnerability to hazards and by suggesting ways the district can mitigate disasters. EOCWD will seek public input by hosting meetings and sharing ways to participate via web, social media and other communications with customers and stakeholders. An informational website on the plan is available at www.eocwd.com/hazardmitigationplan. EOCWD will also form a steering committee made up of local stakeholders, which will oversee the plan’s development and outreach. The committee will meet on a monthly basis and meetings will be open to the public. “We’re hopeful that through this hazard mitigation planning process, our residents will not only suggest ways that EOCWD can harden against disasters, but also think about ways our residents and their families can be better prepared,” Ohlund said. EOCWD encompasses a service area of approximately 10,000 acres. EOCWD provides wholesale service to local jurisdictions as well as retail water and sewer service.

Looking for the current agenda for EOCWD's upcoming Board of Directors meeting. View or download the current agenda or search our archives by clicking here.

EOCWD customers may now sign up for e-billing and for secure, online automatic payments on the EOCWD website. To do so, click here.

On Wednesday, October 3, FEMA and some local government agencies will conduct a test of National and Local emergency notification systems. The nation-wide test includes the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, and the local agency tests include the use of AlertOC. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) messages are sent to cell phones. Cell towers will broadcast the WEA test for approximately 30 minutes. During this time, cell phones that are switched on and within range of an active cell tower should be capable of receiving the test message. Cell phones should receive the message only once. Even if the cell phone is on silent, each phone receiving the message will buzz loudly. Participating Radio and TV stations will broadcast a TEST Message at this same time on the EAS system. Participating cities and the County Unincorporated areas will also send a reverse notification via AlertOC to those residents and businesses who have registered additional methods of contact for themselves and their family. Orange County has several natural hazards including wildland fire, tsunami, earthquake, flooding, etc. It is important that local government can send emergency alerts to our residents and visitors when a disaster occurs. EAS and WEA are just two methods that may be used to communicate with our OC residents. Be sure to also follow official government social media accounts, sign up for any local notification systems such as Nixle, and REGISTER at www.AlertOC.com to ensure that messages can be shared to your cell phone, email, home and business phones when needed. A test of the Wireless Emergency Alert system will be sent October 3. Most cell phones will receive a msg & buzz loudly. We encourage you to also REGISTER your cell phone, email, home & business phones at www.AlertOC.com to received important life safety information from OC agencies.

How do you audit a sewer system? While it sounds like the run-up to a joke, it's anything but that to us - in fact, it was one of the most important things we accomplished in 2018. When EOCWD acquired 175 miles of sewer in 2016, the State of California required us to do two things: 1) prepare and implement a Sewer System Management Plan (SSMP) and, 2) eliminate preventable sewer overflows. Every two years we are required to audit how successful we were at both of those requirements. During a 12-week process in late 2018, EOCWD staff worked with an expert consultant on the audit. The entire 573 page Sewer System Management Plan was reviewed in detail, along with gigabits of electronic records. The result? Over 125 revisions to the SSMP detailing changes to the way we train our staff, improvements in how we respond to emergencies, corrections to errors in documentation and clarifications that were needed to make procedures more clear. Over the past two years we've had four sewer spills, not the record we were looking for. By way of explanation, one of the spills occurred within days of our taking over the sewers and one was caused by a contractor dumping concrete and asphalt in the sewer and blocking it. The other two sewer spills were caused by roots and grease, and we're working hard to get those causes under control. Our goal is zero spills each year, and we won't be successful until we achieve that. The audit results and the changes that were identified were reviewed with the Board; the Board approved the revised SSMP at their January 17th Meeting; implementation of the changes started on January 18th. The changes are memorialized in the revised SSMP, Volumes I and II - you can access these here. Our customers expect that we live up to our motto: Hometown Service. Fiscal Discipline. Direct Accountability. The SSMP audit is one of the ways we are accountable for our work, and while we know that an almost 600-page document can sound mind numbing, it is a one-stop shop for how we will run our system and ensure that: "Your #2 will always be our #1"

On September 15, 2016, the EOCWD Board of Directors approved a series of 5 rate changes between 2016 and 2021. This is the third of those rate increases. At East Orange County Water District, our rates reflect the true cost of providing water service to the community and ensuring long-term financial stability, allowing us to maintain the same level of reliable service that our customers have received for the past 58 years. We greatly appreciate the community’s stewardship and your continued water conservation efforts. Fixed and Volumetric Rates Increase Breakdown

As previously reported, EOCWD is undertaking significant sewer maintenance projects in North Tustin. Particularly in the area of Irvine Blvd. and Browning Avenue. In our ongoing effort to be transparent, we will be updating this News post throughout the project so our customers and visitors to the area can follow our progress. The project hours will be 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. but we will be working hard to keep impacts on commuters to a minimum. Come back to this page throughout the project period to get the latest progress reports and information! August 1, 2018 Thank you to the residents of Browning Avenue, Eveningside Lane, Hickory-Branch Road and Bubbling-Well Road for your patience, fortitude and friendliness during this important project. We are very happy to report that the project was completed 8 days before our deadline. The contractor, W.A. Rasic Construction, encountered several problems during the project, but was able to minimize time delays by working on the weekend of July 30th. Time completion was very important to us because school is starting up at Tustin Memorial Academy on August 13th and we didn't want to interfere with the flow of -traffic at this school and/or this important intersection. This project was particularly difficult as both a large, high-pressure jet fuel line and a large, high-pressure natural gas line, as well as a large water line and a bank of regional internet lines, were present in the first northbound lane on Irvine Boulevard; the contractor excavated (to almost 20' deep) and worked around these critical utilities to replace the sewer line. Shown below are pictures from the project. This specific project completes a year-long effort to replace sagging sewer pipelines in six different places within our service area. These projects will ensure that wastewater continues to flow unimpeded down to Fountain Valley for eventual treatment at Orange County Sanitation District's treatment plant and further purification at the Orange County Water District's Water Replenishment Plant - where it will eventually be recharged into our groundwater basin and reused as potable drinking water someday. Operations Manager Jerry Mendzer (Blue Hat) inspects work progress 18" deep trench with shoring and multiple utilities crossing it make for a constricted work site! The day this was taken, temperatures in the trench reached over 105 degrees! Two neighbors allowed us to pump sewage from a manhole on Browning Avenue through their property over to another manhole on Eveningside Lane for five days during a critical portion of the work. This allowed us to limit the number of residents without sewer service - can't thank them enough for their willingness to be inconvenienced to help out their neighbors and us!

You may have seen news reports on utilities shutting off power due to forecast Santa Ana winds, as a way to prevent wildfires. Please be aware that EOCWD is prepared with back-up power for our operations.  As a result, our customers should not face any disruption of service due to power utility shut offs. Please contact us at (714) 538-5815 with any questions.

At the September 19, 2019 East Orange County Water District board meeting, the Board of Directors will consider increasing Capacity Fees for the Wholesale and Retail Zones based upon the Water Capacity Study Fee Report prepared by Raftelis Consulting. To view the staff report and water capacity fees study report, click here: Capacity Fees Increase