A Refuge to Inspire Your Landscape
Take a trip to the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary—a hidden gem in Irvine. The RightScape demonstration garden surrounding the Visitors Center has more than three dozen plant varieties, each identified with a plant marker and QR code for mobile access to plant-care details. California native and non-native drought-tolerant plants are featured in two distinct sections of the landscape. Interpretive signs show how they differ in their growing characteristics and water needs.
Additional signs illustrate how efficient irrigation technology and scheduling keep the garden looking healthy. A stormwater bioswale, consisting of river rocks and stones, runs prominently through the demo garden—to collect rain or irrigation water, helping it seep into the ground instead of running off-site.
Lights, Camera, Action! Create a Video for Districts Make the Difference 2018 Student Video Contest
Show us how special districts make a difference in your community for a chance to win up to $2,000 in scholarships!
For over 100 years, local service agencies known as special districts have kept our lights on, water flowing, and provided access to a multitude of services that enhance our communities. California’s special districts are much more than local service providers. These local agencies are created by local residents to meet their community’s needs in the most efficient and effective manner.
High school and college students, gather your friends and family to create a fun and informative 60 second video highlighting your local special districts and the difference they make in your community.
The contest rules and application are available at www.DistrictsMaketheDifference.org/video-contest.
Submit your video to info@districtsmakethedifference.org between August 27, 2018, and September 30, 2018.
Contest Awards:
- 1st Place- $2,000 Scholarship
- 2nd Place- $1,000 Scholarship
- 3rd Place- $500 Scholarship
Not Familiar with Special Districts?
Go to www.DistrictsMaketheDifference.org to learn more! There are resources to explain special districts and the important work they do throughout California. The California Special Districts Association also maintains a map to help you find the special districts in your area.
CONTEST QUICK LINKS
Sign Up Now for 2018 Fall Resident Tours
Curious where your water comes from or how it is managed?
IRWD hosts tours each year for those who live or work within IRWD boundaries. Tours are hosted by an IRWD board member and are designed to give residents an opportunity to learn more about IRWD, encourage an open dialogue, and to answer questions regarding the District. Now is the time to sign up - IRWD tours offer customers a chance to view our facilities from behind the scenes to learn how our water systems work, meet and greet your IRWD Board Representative, understand your water supply, and become a more efficient water user.
Resident tours are not open to those who have participated in an IRWD resident tour in the last three years.
Light breakfast and lunch provided. Must be 16 or older. More details below.
Fall Resident Tours
Friday, Oct. 12, and Saturday, Oct. 13
9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
IRWD Operations Center and San Joaquin Marsh
3512 Michelson Dr., Irvine
Sign-up required: irwd.com/learning/request-a-resident-tour
Happy to See Green? Thank Our Purple Pipes
Let’s be honest. We love our treelined streets, verdant medians and common areas that define the Irvine Ranch Water District. And while other communities are cutting back on their landscaping, ours continues to flourish.
Since 1963, IRWD has been implementing a vision to integrate recycled water and purple pipes into the design of our community—and it shows. In 1990, 14% of all water used in the District was recycled. Today, recycled water makes up about 25% of our portfolio. And that’s what we use to water 80% of the public and commercial irrigated landscape in our service area—including parks, medians, golf courses, and community association property.
More Than Just Irrigation
In addition to landscaping, IRWD promotes commercial uses of recycled water. It is used for toilet flushing in more than 90 buildings, in cooling towers, and for industrial applications such as concrete production and composting. Every gallon of recycled water used for these purposes saves a gallon of drinking water.
A National Leader
IRWD owns and operates one of the most robust recycled water systems in the nation, with two water recycling plants, 550 miles of recycled water pipelines, and more than 5,500 metered recycled water connections. Four seasonal-storage reservoirs—Rattlesnake, San Joaquin, Sand Canyon and Syphon—allow the District to store recycled water in the cooler and wetter winter months for use in the summer when demand is highest.
Recycled Water Quality Report
Learn more about the treatment and testing of IRWD recycled water in the 2018 Recycled Water Quality Report. Visit irwd.com/services/recycled-water.
Chilling with Recycled Water: IRWD, UCI Save 80 Million Gallons of Drinking Water a Year
UC Irvine and Irvine Ranch Water District officials toss ceremonial buckets of water into the cooling towers to kick off the new project. (Shown here, right to left, are UCI Associate Chancellor for Sustainability Wendell Brase, IRWD Board President Douglas J. Reinhart, UCI CFO and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Ron Cortez, IRWD Board Vice President Steven E. LaMar and IRWD Board of Directors members Mary Aileen Matheis and Peer Swan.)
Irvine Ranch Water District and the University of California, Irvine, have dedicated UCI’s renovated Central Plant — retrofitted to use recycled water for cooling campus buildings.
The most significant conservation accomplishment in UCI’s 50-year collaboration with IRWD, the Central Plant conversion will save more than 80 million gallons of drinking water annually – roughly what 3,300 households use in a year.
For more than half a century, IRWD has been a national leader in the production and use of recycled water. IRWD worked with UCI on the planning, design and construction of the project, engineered to meet IRWD and UCI standards.
“IRWD continues to be in the forefront of recycled water,” said Douglas J. Reinhart, president of the IRWD Board of Directors. “And we are proud of our partnership with UCI.” He was among IRWD and UCI officials who launched the renovated Central Plant with a dedication ceremony Aug. 15.
The renovation was a collaborative effort. Working at night for almost a year to avoid interrupting campus traffic by day, IRWD constructed 3,000 feet of pipeline to transport recycled water from its Michelson Water Recycling Plant to the UCI Central Plant – which cools 65 buildings throughout campus. UCI retrofitted the on-campus plant and installed additional filtration systems to further treat the water.
As a result, UCI will achieve its stretch goal to reduce per-capita drinking water use 50% by 2025 – and it puts the campus well ahead of the statewide University of California goal to cut water usage 36% by 2025.
In addition to saving 80 million gallons with the cooling plant conversion, UCI saves 70 million gallons of drinking water per year from previous recycled water irrigation projects completed in collaboration with IRWD.
“UCI is one of the nation’s greenest universities, and we like to set the bar high for environmental stewardship,” said Wendell Brase, associate chancellor of sustainability at UCI. “This would not be possible without our partnership with IRWD.”
Jerry Nearhoof, UCI’s assistant director of utilities operations and facilities management, directs a tour of the university’s Central Plant, which now cools 65 buildings across campus using recycled water.
IRWD recently helped UCI convert the university's Central Plant cooling towers (shown here) to recycled water, saving 80 million gallons of drinking water annually.
A recycled water storage tank, shown in the background, provides the water capacity needed to operate the cooling towers at right.
A view of the internal operations of the university's Central Plant, which provides chilled air to 65 buildings on campus.
