Workshop #2 Recap
Water Day began at the Back Bay Bistro, where the Leadership Tomorrow Class of 2017 jumped on our 30 person “party bus” and got to know each other better with several fun icebreakers that class liaison Trudy Naman designed.
Our first stop was the Irvine Ranch Water District, which hosted us for an amazing breakfast. We then heard from the IRWD Director, Paul Cook, who spoke about the latest innovations that the facility is implementing to conserve even more water than they were previously. The new IRWD biowaste facility that recycles the waste from the recycled water to partially power the facility was explained to us in fascinating detail. Then the Leadership Tomorrow class was able to physically tour the facility and tie in the lecture with seeing the actual recycling process first hand.
We then jumped back on the bus and headed to the Mesa Water Treatment facility in Costa Mesa. There, we were treated to a tour and history lesson explaining how water is removed and treated from the water table underneath Orange County. One of the cool facts we learned is that the underground water is brown (but perfectly safe to drink) because of the Redwood forest that used to stand there 100,000 years ago – amazing!
After that, we headed back to the Back Bay Bistro for a delicious lunch and great presentation from Dr. Chris Lowe, Director of the Shark Lab at CSULB. Dr. Lowe gave us insight into why there have been so many shark sightings off our coastline in recent months and shared some very exciting video of those sharks. He showed us some of the advanced technology that scientists are using to track and document changes in shark population and behavior as well as the ways sharks tie into the health of our local oceans.
From there, we moved onto the Back Bay Science Center, where we were able to see live testing of our local coastal waters. Not only did we learn how the facility monitors the water, keeping us safe, we were also able to touch some of the local sea life in the centers touch tanks. Luckily, no one lost a finger, so we considered that portion of the day a success!
Our day ended with an amazing harbor cruise through Newport Harbor on the Newport Legacy, where the class was able to get to know each other even better and enjoy some perfect Southern California weather.