Understanding Fullerton Water

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Drinking Water Quality

The City of Fullerton vigilantly safeguards its water supply and, as in years past, the water delivered to your home meets the standards required by the state and federal regulatory agencies. In accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the City monitors over 100 compounds in your water supply.In some cases, the City goes beyond what is required to monitor for additional contaminants that have known health risks. For example, the Orange County Water District (OCWD), which manages our groundwater basin, monitors our groundwater for unregulated solvents and herbicides/pesticides. Unregulated contaminant monitoring helps US Environmental Protection Agency determine where certain contaminants occur and whether it needs to establish regulations for those contaminants.

Sources of Supply

Your drinking water is a blend of mostly groundwater from the Orange County groundwater basin and also surface water imported by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). Approximately 75 percent of the City’s water supply is provided by 10 groundwater wells. Your groundwater comes from a natural underground reservoir that stretches from the Prado Dam and fans across the northwestern portion of Orange County, excluding the communities of Brea and La Habra, and stretching as far south as the El Toro ‘Y’. The City also has 6 imported water connections that help supplement the City’s water demands. MWD’s imported water source primarily originates from the Colorado River, and the State Water Project from northern California.

The City water system serves water to approximately 142,000 people through 32,000 residential, commercial and industrial service connections. The following Area Map will help you determine what source of water you are most likely to receive. Area 1 receives primarily groundwater and Area 3 imported water. Area 2 receives a mixture of groundwater and imported water. Fullerton’s water system was built with maximum flexibility. This means that under emergency, drought or other unusual conditions, the source of water to any Area may change. The Area Map reflects the source of water each area receives a majority of the time.