City Finds All’s Well in Fountain Valley

To celebrate successful drilling at a new Fountain Valley well, Public Works Director Don Webb led a toast with water from the well in “limited edition” bottles at this week’s City Council meeting.

Newport Beach officials estimate that the well will save the city about $16 million over the next 15 years.

“We are excited that we struck as much water as we have,” said Michael J. Sinacori, utilities director and the project’s manager. “It’s more than we had hoped for.”

Newport Beach, which has no wells, imports its water from the Metropolitan Water District but has been seeking an alternative source for more than a decade.

In February, the city sealed a deal with Fountain Valley to build four wells there. One on Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School grounds yielded the first water last Friday.

Next week, the city will begin a second well at the school site, Sinacori said, and within three months, the other two wells will be started at Slater Avenue near the San Diego Freeway.

The Groundwater Development Project, a $20-million effort that includes construction of a 3-million gallon reservoir, a pump station and a series of pipelines, is expected to draw 4 billion gallons of water a year.

Sinacori said officials hope to have well water running from Newport Beach tap by summer 1997.

Several council members joined in the celebratory toast Tuesday night after Webb handed out well water sealed in 24 glass bottles labeled with the city’s emblem. The labels read: “Transported, hand-filtered and bottled by Public Works Department.”