By Ethan Yim
In a region increasingly dependent on water infrastructure, the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) incorporates data-driven solutions and strategy when managing water resources for a significant portion of Orange County. Serving a daytime population of over 600,000 residents, the IRWD encompasses 181 square miles including the cities of Irvine, Tustin, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Lake Forest and Orange – approximately 20% of Orange County.
Engineering Manager Eric Akiyoshi has over 30 years of experience with IRWD. He started as an intern and throughout his career has worked on Water Quality, Operations, Water Resources and Infrastructure Planning projects.
He graduated from UC Irvine in 1993 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, specializing in water resource. He described water as one of the “big three” resources humans need to survive, the other two being air and food.
“Especially here, in California – we essentially live in a desert…this is a great major,’” Akiyoshi said.
For the past 15-20 years, Akiyoshi has given back to the community by being part of UCI’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Affiliates program and periodically participating in Dr. Brett Sanders’s class project presentations.
Akiyoshi’s teams at IRWD focuses on planning the future water supply sources as well as treatment and distribution facilities needed to serve IRWD’s customers of this water. Additionally, over the next 50 years, there will be about $10 billion in infrastructure replacement needs. His team is prioritizing these capital improvements among the service area in order to optimize the use of resources.
Akiyoshi’s expertise also reaches into the field of geographic information systems (GIS). Over the past 20 years, he has helped evolve
GIS from a small grassroots movement into an enterprise system enabling mobile solutions for Operations, Engineering and Customer Service staff across the company.
When asked about some of his favorite projects, Akiyoshi recounted a project he worked on as an undergraduate student intern.
“My first job, when I was a student at UCI, was working on what we call the Organic Removal Pilot Plant. We were pumping water from 2000 feet down, and when we pulled it out it looked like tea – almost like real light coffee.… that was a heavily weighted organic material coming from ancient redwood forests…” he said.
“That ultimately resulted in the design specs for a full-scale treatment plant that we currently operate at the Irvine Ranch Water District.”
Over the years, Eric has worked on countless projects, in multiple capacities, but he said there’s a particular feat that makes him proudest.
“I’m glad, proud and humbled…to be part of seeing individuals on my team rise up in the organization,” he said.
Akiyoshi’s tenure at IRWD, rising from student intern to Engineering Manager, has helped ensure a reliable water supply for a significant portion of Orange County. His work has helped pave the way for the application of data and information-based solutions to be used for water resource management in an increasingly technology-dependent world.
