As a cofounding member of the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County, OCWD was honored to host two distinguished speakers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the March WACO meeting.

Dr. Tom Painter, a Water and Carbon Cycles Group Research scientist spoke about Airborne Snow Observation, a way to better quantify snowmelt runoff and to better understand its magnitude and timing as it relates to water management.

Dr. Mike Gunson, a Global Change & Energy Program Manager and OCO-2 Project scientist provided a presentation about remote sensing tools and their use in measuring groundwater basin depletion over time. These tools can help predict future water availability, potential impacts to salinity intrusion, levee integrity, groundwater storage, the amount of water from snowmelt, timing of runoff, precipitation forecasts, and evapotranspiration.

WACO meetings are typically the first Friday of every month from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the OCWD/MWDOC Board Room located at 18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. The April 10 program will feature a presentation on the Colorado River and deliveries to Southern California.

Monthly meetings are open to the public and provide attendees with an opportunity for professional networking and to receive informative presentations from water industry professionals, academics, economists, engineers, political officials, and others about key water issues affecting Orange County.

To view past WACO presentations, visit the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County.