Mesa Consolidated Water District in Costa Mesa, Calif., celebrated its 50th anniversary Oct. 13 with an event attended by more than 80 community business and civic leaders and elected officials. They celebrated the district's role in the region's development and its plans for getting closer to 100 percent reliance on local water supplies by 2012. The district now meets 92 percent of its demand with local water supplies.
"For the past 50 years, Mesa Water has provided a safe and reliable water supply that has supported the region as it transformed from farms into the bustling mix of homes and businesses we know today," said board president Shawn Dewane. "We look forward to continually meeting that challenge. To that end, increasing Mesa Water's use of locally produced, drought-tolerant supplies is key to our community's ongoing success."
Mesa Water's legacy was honored with Lifetime Water Achievement awards given to former board member Henry S. (Hank) Panian and former general manger Karl Kemp. C.J. Segerstrom & Sons received a Water Stewardship award for its long partnership with Mesa Water on water conservation and on furthering the community's water system and infrastructure development.
The ceremony also looked back 50 years with memorabilia displays, a slide show of archival photos, and a time capsule. As a tribute to the anniversary, Mesa Water has published a commemorative history book.
Mesa Water has a goal of becoming 100 percent reliant on local water supplies. Key to achieving that goal is increased use of locally available, drought-resistant groundwater. Hundreds of feet below Mesa Water's clear-water supply is an ample reserve of colored water, left over from the redwood forests that populated the coastal plain. This water is safe to drink and of higher quality than more-expensive, less-reliable water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.
For the past 40 years, Mesa Water has been advancing colored water treatment technology. Today, the district's Colored Water Treatment Facility meets 25 percent of demand. Construction begins next year on improvements to the Colored Water Treatment Facility.
Mesa Water (www.MesaWater.org) was founded on Jan. 1, 1960, when Governor Pat Brown signed the Costa Mesa District Merger Law, merging several local water providers into one agency to provide more efficient services.
