Orange County Water District Takes on New Duties Enabled by Tech

A warming climate and the increasing threat of urban wildfires have water districts assuming new responsibilities as part of their role to provide fire protection — and they're supporting that work with GIS, data advancements and hardware.

The Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) in Orange County, Calif., has developed three reservoirs, able to hold some 3 billion gallons of recycled water, strategically placed near wildlands to aid in firefighting, establishing the water district as a key component of the region’s resiliency in the face of fire threats.

“You look in this continuum of need for water, and certainly you need it for just day-to-day living. But we’re also going to need it more so to maintain community resiliency in the face of climate change,” reflected Nate Adams, director of water resiliency at SMWD.

The open-air reservoirs are supplied with recycled water for non-potable water uses such as irrigation. They are maintained at one-quarter to half-full in order to serve firefighting needs.

“Those are located right adjacent to our national forests, and our other areas, so that helicopters and others that quickly need to refill, it’s immediate hookups and fill opportunities for them,” Adams explained.

During the 2024 Airport Fire, which burned through 23,500 acres, SMWD provided more than 700,000 gallons of water to firefighting agencies.

In addition to the reservoirs, the district maintains some 9,000 fire hydrants across its service area. SMWD uses GIS technology from Esri, the GIS mapping technology provider, to manage the assets.

Data has emerged as a plentiful resource generated by water agencies, and is essential in informing the many management decisions the agencies make. Also crucially, this data is often tied to locations — the locations of meters, hydrants, water delivery lines, storage facilities and others. That's why GIS technology is often at the center of the data management support ecosystem.

SMWD has increased its use and applicability of GIS technology in the last six years, as the Esri data has become more robust.

SMWD field teams use mobile device programs to interact with dashboards indicating hydrant maintenance. Colored dots on an online map indicate the maintenance status of the agency’s hydrants.

“We try to inspect and service a hydrant every two years, and so, this is us making sure that we’re doing that,” said Adams as he demonstrated the GIS-enabled technology.

Another dashboard gives insights into both the domestic water system, recycled water infrastructure and sewer system.

“We can see the type of pipe, how much we have in linear feet, by size,” Adams explained.