A new groundwater well in Fountain Valley will become a reliable water source for two Orange County coastal communities that previously relied heavily on imported water.
Officials from the Laguna Beach County Water District, the city of Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Fountain Valley recently signed an agreement to build a new well and supporting infrastructure on nearly one acre in Fountain Valley.
The now-vacant land on Bushard Street was purchased by the Laguna Beach County Water District in 2024 for $2.75 million to provide a more reliable, affordable and sustainable water supply, thereby reducing Laguna Beach’s reliance on imported water. The collaboration benefits ratepayers in both communities by lowering the price, officials said.
The $30 million project, which will start with construction over three phases in the summer of 2026, will be led by the city of Newport Beach, which will also use its in-house expertise to help reduce the cost of building the needed infrastructure. Once the well is completed — planned to be producing water by 2028 — the groundwater will travel through Newport Beach’s existing transmission system, which officials said will eliminate the cost of new pipelines.
Newport Beach will invest $20 million, and Laguna Beach will add $10 million, officials said.
“A century ago, Laguna Beach was built on the promise of a dependable water supply,” said Mayor Alex Rounaghi, who signed the agreement with Newport Beach Mayor Joe Stapleton and water district officials earlier this month.
“Through this agreement, we are renewing that promise,” Rounaghi said. “This ensures that future generations of Laguna residents will have a safe, reliable and locally controlled source of water.”
Rounaghi, who is also board president of the Laguna Beach County Water District, explained that the first reliable water in Laguna Beach was made possible a century ago. Then, residents, under the guise of forming a duck-hunting club, went north to drill to look for water and found a 120-acre plot near the Santa Ana River Basin in Huntington Beach, where they drilled the first well and gave the city its first groundwater rights.
“Now, 100 years later, we’re once again looking north to develop a well that will provide local, sustainable water for the future,” Rounaghi said. “It’s a modern chapter in the same story of collaboration, creativity and self-reliance that built this community.”
The well project — which will draw water from the Orange County Groundwater Basin, managed by the Orange County Water District — will provide about two-thirds of the total water supply used by the Laguna Beach County Water District. Water used in Laguna Beach is now imported.
For Newport Beach, the new well adds to its local water resources and eliminates the need for any imported water.
Newport Beach now gets about 85% of its water from groundwater and 15% from sources in Northern California and the Colorado River, city officials said.
Under the agreement, Fountain Valley will benefit from public infrastructure improvements and will also have an emergency water connection to enhance its own water reliability.
“This partnership reflects a shared commitment to supporting a sustainable groundwater basin and reducing reliance on outside water sources,” said Stapleton.
The idea to look for a new water source came up in 2021 when Newport Beach — which, since 2016, has had an agreement with the Laguna Beach district to provide it with extra groundwater — began showing limited capacity, said Keith Van Der Maaten, general manager for the Laguna Beach County Water District.
“We had been looking for a new well,” Van Der Maaten said, adding that the preferred site needed to be near the existing Newport Beach pipeline and west of the 405 freeway.
The district commissioned a study and then held a joint meeting with Newport Beach and Fountain Valley to look at some sites, including a site on Bushard that was the location of its fire station, which is in the process of being relocated, Van Der Maaten said.
“It was then that we discovered the vacant plot on Bushard,” he said. “It was the perfect size, right location, vacant, good access off Bushard and close to transmission facilities. We sought out the owner and negotiated the deal. It was amazing this vacant parcel existed in the perfect spot.”
The parcel sits right between two homes. The well project is currently being designed, said Mark Vukojevic, Newport Beach’s utilities director.
The well will be constructed in three phases: drilling, pipelines and the building site work. Drilling should begin next summer.
Two water wells that will sit side-by-side on the property are planned, Vukojevic said, adding that one well will range from 700 to 800 feet and a shallow well will be about 300 to 400 feet.
“As the site is drilled, the water quality and water flow are tested,” he said. “Those results will determine the final casing and screen location and depths.”