July is Smart Irrigation Month and IRWD is spotlighting the use of recycled water in local landscaping. Fun fact: 80% of the public and commercial irrigated landscape in our service area—including parks, medians and golf courses—is watered with recycled water.

IRWD’s recycled water is not for drinking or for other uses inside the home. But it is vital to IRWD’s water-efficiency program and a driver of the local economy, because every gallon of recycled water saves a gallon of drinking water. Each year, IRWD recycles about 9 billion gallons of water and stores it in reservoirs for use in dry times—a priority as we experience more volatile climate extremes.

Recycled water is produced through a multi-step treatment process and delivered through an extensive distribution system. This dedicated system keeps recycled water completely separate from drinking water, using purple pipe for easy identification. The system includes more than 500 miles of pipe and is still growing. IRWD pioneered the purple piping, which has become the international symbol for recycled water.

Sites in the IRWD service area that use recycled water in landscaping include the University of California, Irvine; Irvine Valley College; golf courses such as Strawberry Farms and Shady Canyon; the Great Park; the Villages of Irvine; and many more.

For more information

• Be water smart! Save money with outdoor rebates at rightscapenow.com/rebates/residential-rebates.
• IRWD offers free recycled water for your garden. To learn about our Residential Recycled Water Filling Station and meet some people who use it, visit irwd.com/services/fill-station.

Thanks to all of the IRWD customers who joined us July 10 for our Tap Water 101 community workshop. If you missed it, check out our new 3-minute video, “Journey of a Water Sample.” You’ll tag along with real IRWD scientists and water system operators as water makes its way to your drinking glass, sippy cup or pasta pot. Cheers!

Summer marks the official start of fire season: a time when high heat, dry brush and whipping winds spark an incendiary threat to nature, homes and humans.

Irvine Ranch Water District keeps watch to respond to fires and any corresponding loss of power in our service area, patrolling canyon areas and monitoring remote operations. It’s our job to ensure that facilities are protected and that water continues to be delivered to your tap and made available to firefighters battling blazes.

• Pump stations are equipped with automatic backup generators and fuel tanks to keep our water flowing.
• Brush is cleared around remote facilities to protect them from fire.
• IRWD participates in emergency drills with the Water Emergency Response Organization of Orange County.
• We provide immediate emergency alerts to customers via CodeRED, a service available via voice mail, email or text.

IRWD customers living in the foothill and canyon areas can help to protect their homes by taking the following actions:

• Create a safety zone around your home by removing dead or dying vegetation.
• Plant drought-tolerant and fire-resistant plants that can serve as a firebreak near your home (monkeyflower, California lilac, autumn sage, common yarrow, French lavender).
• Prepare an emergency escape plan with your family that includes how to respond to any evacuation order.
• Visit ready.gov/wildfires for more tips and precautions.

Sign Up for CodeRED

To receive emergency alerts from IRWD, please sign up for CodeRED at irwd.com/emergency-codered or call 949-453-5300.

Coming from South Africa, Analize Mans likes a lush, green garden, and she tends hers guilt-free.

She is one of many hard-core regulars to take advantage of IRWD’s Residential Recycled Water Filling Station, where District customers can drive up and fill their own containers with recycled water, for free.

Open daily, except on holidays and when it’s raining, the station operates out of the Sand Canyon Avenue facility. Mans comes as often as nine times in a week in hot weather — filling up a large plastic drum and a 250-gallon container that she found on the internet and purchased for $100 from a guy in L.A.

A well-used pickup makes the transport easier, but others have found innovative ways to take advantage of the program using ordinary passenger vehicles.

Station worker Tim Smith has seen people haul rain barrels inside the wheel wells of their SUVs. Some cram their trunks with rows of sealed buckets. A Prius owner found a flat, 200-gallon container that fits snugly inside the back of the car. “That’s environmental all around,” he said.

Mans uses the two containers in her truck exclusively for transport, and draws from them to fill other containers set up strategically in her garden once she gets home. A pump connected to an impact sprinkler, projects a rotating spray across the yard with a “chick-chick-chick-chick” — giving her plants all the water they need.

“I don’t use my in-ground irrigation system anymore,” Mans said.

Since 2015, she has collected more than 74,000 gallons of recycled water at the station: every drop of which used has meant a drop of drinking water saved.

Mans admits to spending some money to get her plan going, but in the end — she states proudly — she and her husband have saved a lot of money.

“This works really well for us,” she said. “I’m really thankful for the free water.”

Her avocado and papaya trees are grateful for it, too.

Customers must register in advance to take advantage of the program, and there are rules to be followed. For more information or to apply, visit irwd.com/services/fill-station or call 949-453-5500.