SMWD Was Glad to Lend Firefighters a Helping Hand
November 2007

By: Charley Wilson
President, Santa Margarita Water District Board of Directors

Each and every one of us at the Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the men and women who courageously battled the Santiago Fire as numerous blazes scorched Southern California. Countless homes and priceless lives were no doubt saved by firefighters’ efforts here in Orange County.

Like all of you, I witnessed the flames and plumes of dark smoke as the fire devoured nearly 30,000 acres along the 133 and 241 toll roads, Foothill Ranch, Silverado Canyon, Live Oak Canyon, Trabuco Canyon and back over the hills towards Riverside. With the unpredictable winds, dry conditions and a seemingly endless supply of fuel on the surrounding mountainsides, we all desperately waited to see water-dropping helicopters and planes douse the inferno from above.

And that’s exactly what happened. As the days wore on and the fire continued to spread, firefighting aircraft began to drop Foscheck, a flame retardant, and thousands of gallons of water on the hillsides. In fact, many of the firefighters’ helicopters utilized SMWD’s Oso Reservoir to fill their drums for repeated water drops in the foothills over a week-long period.

We were so glad we could help! The Oso Reservoir, visible to passing commuters along the 241 toll road just north of Los Alisos, holds recycled water normally used for irrigation throughout the District’s 62,000-acre service area. It is also an important location for the local Boy Scouts, who’ve leased part of the land from SMWD since 2004 for an outdoor educational center and camp along the water’s edge. But as fires raged nearby, the reservoir quickly became an imperative resource for those battling the blazes.

As thousands of drivers saw during this emergency, the reservoir supplied approximately 646,000 gallons of water to the Santiago fire fighting effort. Helicopters were lining up one after the other to quickly dip their hoses into the reservoir before speeding off to the front lines.

By having this supply of reclaimed water readily available for the firefighters, more than half a million gallons of potable water was conserved for drinking, cooking and other household uses. To me, it’s just been another reminder of how important forward planning and emergency preparedness are to our agency.

At SMWD, we’ve taken great measures over the past decade to ensure that our customers will have the water supplies they need during times of emergency. Increasing our supply reliability with improved inter-agency pipelines and the construction of recycled and fresh water reservoirs now means that our customers have access to 31 surface storage reservoirs and over 241 million gallons of stored water when regional supply lines are disrupted for any reason. Currently, we’re planning to build South County’s largest domestic water storage facility with other local districts, a reservoir that would store an additional 236 million gallons of water – enough to supply cooking and drinking water for up to 162,000 families for two full weeks.

It’s a great feeling to see that our cooperation with local, regional and state fire agencies contributed to the full containment of the Santiago Fire. It’s even more comforting to know that our hard work and preparation at SMWD have put us in a position to have sufficient supplies and an extensive reserve of water for emergencies just like this.

For more information about SMWD’s infrastructure, visit www.smwd.com.

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