About Karl

Career History

• Karl Seckel has 40+ years of professional engineering experience in technical and policy issues in water in Orange County, Southern California and Statewide. Karl is running for Division 4 of the Municipal Water District of Orange County in November 2020 (Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach) to lend his experience and expertise to help maintain the high reliability and high quality of our water supplies in Orange County in a cost-effective manner.

• Karl has worked professionally in the water industry in Orange County for more than 40 years, 6 years with an engineering consulting firm and the rest as staff member at Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC). Yes, his plan is to retire as a staff member and join the Board of Directors.

• Karl’s work at Municipal Water District of Orange County has been to assist the 28 MWDOC member agencies (cities and water agencies who receive water and other services) to work together to improve water supply and water system supply reliability in OC and Southern California.

• For Karl, being a director at Municipal Water District of Orange County starts with getting elected from Division 4 representing the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. But issues at MWDOC also involve providing imported water and other services to cities and water districts throughout Orange County.  Furthermore, MWDOC appoints four board members to represent MWDOC and influence policies and programs at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET), the main importer of water into Southern California from the State Water Project and the Colorado River.  So being a Director at MWDOC involves policies at the local level, the Orange County level, the Southern California level, within the Colorado River Basin Area and Statewide issues within California.  It takes a lot of time to understand and navigate such a system – Karl’s years of experience have provided the training necessary to become an effective director.

• The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET) is governed by 37 directors from all over Southern California. MET is one of the largest water agencies in the world and has an annual budget approaching $2 billion and about 1800 employees.  Municipal Water District has an operating budget of about $9M and a water purchase budget of about $200 M and a Choice Budget (with our member agencies) of about $2 million and serves a population of about 2.4 million in Orange County.

• Karl’s general background includes:

  • A belief that holding a public office involves trust between a candidate and the voters. Karl is running for the Board of Municipal Water District of Orange County, Division 4 (Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach) in November 2020 and is asking for your trust and your vote.

  • Karl has lived in Orange County since 1978, almost entirely as a resident of Costa Mesa.

  • Karl is a graduate of the University of Maryland in Civil Engineering with a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. Karl is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of California.  Karl joined Municipal Water District of Orange County in 1983 and has held the second in command job as Assistant General Manager and District Engineer for much of his career.

• Karl has had a long and varied career at MWDOC.

  • In his early years he supervised the operation and maintenance of the Allen McColloch Pipeline (AMP), a $100 M pipeline construction project in 1980 that runs from Yorba Linda through Irvine and ends in Mission Viejo, originally serving 11 retail agencies.

  • Karl was involved with several expansions of the AMP, including being involved in the design, construction, financing and operations of the expansions. The AMP was interconnected with the South County Pipeline in the early 1990’s which allowed water to flow all the way to San Clemente and involved bringing four more agencies onto the system.

  • For about 5 years of his career, Karl was involved in a huge policy issue involving the sale of the AMP to MET to bring about $85 M back into the local economy, plus negotiating to get MET to pay for the pumping at the South County Pump Station, another enormous savings. The negotiations involved working among 18 agencies and closed in 1995.

  • In the late 1990’s Karl worked for several years to bring about a consolidation of Municipal Water District of Orange County with Coastal Municipal Water District (a smaller sister agency running along the coast from Newport Beach to San Clemente), another savings of efficiency within Orange County and an improvement of services to the Coastal agencies.

  • In the early 2000’s Karl became involved in “Reliability Planning” and investigating ocean desalination as an alternative reliability source for Orange County. Karl has been instrumental in advancing several reliability studies and investigations to examine how water systems can continue operating and serving customers and businesses during major events such as earthquakes that might knock out the import system.  Karl’s studies led to the 2006 Agreement between MWDOC, OCWD, IRWD and the South County Agencies to move groundwater to SOC during emergency events, a major reliability improvement.

  • Karl led research and operational investigations between 2004 and 2013 for a slantwell ocean intake system at Doheny State Beach that allowed ocean water to be accessed through a test well. Slantwells tapping the ocean are protective of the ocean environment and do not result in impingement or entrainment of fish larvae or other marine organisms, they do not include construction in the ocean, and the water is naturally filtered through the sands and gravels of the offshore aquifer thus avoiding pre-treatment costs to clean the water prior to sending it to reverse osmosis membranes.

  • Karl’s most recent Orange County Water Reliability in 2018 involved an examination of Orange County’s existing and future reliability out to the year 2050 under four scenarios with various levels of investments in future water projects involving two climate change scenarios. The modeling work was completed by an engineering consulting firm and examined historic hydrologic traces from 1922 to 2016 as modified by the climate change implications.  The study indicated that demands could be met out into the future with appropriate investments in new water supply projects and water use efficiency measures.  Additional investments in water supply projects were recommended for South Orange County for both water supply reliability and to meet demands during emergency events.

  • Karl’s career has also involved work related to the Water Emergency Response Organization for Orange County (WEROC) to provide coordination among the water and wastewater organizations in Orange County for emergency response planning, emergency activations and recovery events. MWDOC helped to form WEROC back in 1983 and it grew into a premier organization and integral partner in the Orange County Emergency Operational Area for emergency coordination and response among the water and wastewater agencies.  It is the only organization like this in the State.

  • Over his career, Karl has been involved in seeking and securing grants to help offset the local costs of investments to Orange County consumers for water resources projects and activities.