IRVINE : Agencies Plan Use for Smith Bequest

Orange County water agencies plan to form a National Water Research Institute to finance local research projects with the $1 million or more promised by heiress Joan Irvine Smith.

The workings of the proposed institute were unveiled this week during a meeting of the Irvine Ranch Water District’s board of directors. Officials from several other county water agencies attended, as did Smith.

Smith offered last month to endow the water institute with “at least” $1 million if she receives a proposed $252.6-million settlement from the Irvine Co. this year. The settlement, based on the sale of her 11% share of the the company formed by her grandfather, is awaiting a Michigan court’s judgment and a possible appeal from either Smith or the company.

The institute would be one of several recipients of $30 million Smith said she would dole out this year from her settlement. The money would go to fund water research, help start a law school and medical clinics at UC Irvine, and support other causes, Smith has said in interviews and at water agency meetings.

Since Smith made her offer, officials of the Irvine Ranch Water District, the Orange County Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County have been discussing how the institute could operate. The general idea is to form a joint powers authority among the interested water agencies to manage the institute, said Don Owen, president of the Orange County Water District board of directors.

The institute would be administered mostly by officials from the Orange County Water District, which has offered to house the institute in its Fountain Valley offices.

The institute would fund and encourage research into technologies to improve ground water quality and supply, treat waste water to make it more usable in homes and businesses, find ways to remove salt from sea water without the currently needed huge and expensive plants, and consider several other projects to make Orange County less dependent on imported water.

So far, possible projects totaling more than $13 million have been submitted by water agencies.

The water officials will meet again June 4 to discuss the legal operation of the institute. Smith, who attended this week’s meeting, congratulated Owen and others for putting plans together for the institute. “I think you’re on the right track,” she said.