Westminster Memorial Park: Stormwater lessons from a century-old landscape

The roots of Westminster Memorial Park in Orange County, California, date back to 1924, when it was founded as Central Memorial Park. After the 1929 stock market crash forced the original investors out, new ownership in the 1930s redeveloped the site as a memorial park, later adding mausoleums, a mortuary and a landmark chapel.

Nearly a century later, the 150-acre property remains a memorial landscape and cultural hub. Its early 20th-century irrigation network, expanded through the decades, left the park with an aged, unreliable water supply, a sediment-clogged pond, and labor-intensive maintenance.

For a site with both historic significance and active community use, reliable water management was critical. The challenge was how to modernize the system without losing the park’s character or disrupting daily operations.

A century of wear

As an active cemetery approaching its centennial, Westminster Memorial Park faced water management challenges common to legacy landscapes. To address them, the park turned to The Davey Tree Expert Company and its technical services division, the Davey Institute.

Institute specialists began with a comprehensive site assessment, which included inspecting wells and the irrigation pond, reviewing pumps and wiring, zone configuration, assessing controls and sampling soils to understand infiltration across different areas and cultural practices used at the cemetery to maintain the system. The findings reflected nearly a hundred years of growth and continuous use.

Only one of the four original wells was still in service, leaving the park dependent on a single source. The irrigation pond had lost capacity to sediment and organic buildup, fueling algae growth. Nearly half the grounds required manual watering due to failed wiring and mismatched controls. Routine burials further disrupted the soil profile, creating uneven infiltration across the site.

“These weren’t signs of neglect,” explains Paul Kovacik, director of Water Management Services at the Davey Institute. “They were the realities of a site in constant use for a hundred years.”

With these findings in hand, Davey Institute specialists developed a plan to restore water reliability and improve stormwater performance.

The first priority was stabilizing the water supply. One long-dormant well was rehabilitated and fitted with new pumps, restoring redundancy. Another was inspected and will be brought online to secure capacity for future expansion.

The two-acre irrigation pond, an essential reservoir, was dredged to remove accumulated sediment. Crews also installed bio-nests with biochar-filled socks to filter water and digest organic waste, while an ultrasonic buoy disrupted algae formation.

Together, these measures created a healthier water source for the entire system.

Modernizing the irrigation network

The irrigation system itself was equally transformed. The old 75HP pump, which ran continuously without controls, was replaced by a dual 40HP VFD-controlled skid. Nearly 250 valves and more than 1,000 sprinkler heads were replaced or repositioned for uniform coverage. Mixed zones were separated, and narrow planter beds were converted from spray to drip irrigation to prevent overspray on memorial stones.

Automation brought the most significant change with the installation of 41 smart controllers sitewide, paired with 50 soil-moisture sensors in key microclimates. Where staff once relied on visual cues and past practices, irrigation now responds directly to measured soil conditions.