Attention budding student artists in the Irvine Ranch Water District service area - announcements have been sent to all of the local schools, inviting students in kindergarten through fifth grade to participate in the annual “Water is Life” poster contest. In addition, students in grades six through 12 have the opportunity to enter the Water Awareness Photography and Digital Arts Contest.

The deadline for kindergarten through fifth grade students to enter their art work is Thursday, March 17. Students participating through the Irvine Unified School District may send their completed posters to Brad Van Patten’s office at the District office, 5050 Barranca Parkway, Irvine, CA 92604.

Non-IUSD students, who are in the IRWD service area, may drop their posters at the IRWD offices, 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Contest rules include:

• Use 12 X 18 white paper. Newsprint and larger sizes will not be accepted.
• Students must leave a one inch white border on all four sides.
• Crayons, markers, ink, poster paint, pastels, chalk, water color or cut paper or fabric may be used. Brighter colors photograph best.
• Horizontal (landscape) format only.
• Include a brief water message (be sure to check spelling!)
• Original art work only – no copyrighted material. Be creative!
• Do not put student’s name on the front of the poster.
• Back of poster must have an entry form with student’s information and signed parental release.

Students entering the “Water is Life” poster contest could have their art work published in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s 2017 calendar.

The deadline for sixth through 12^th grade students to enter the photography and digital arts contest is Monday, April 4. The theme is “Drip, Drop, Stop,” and artists should focus on why water is vital to our way of life and offering solutions for saving water during drought. Some rules include:

• All files must be submitted in JPG, PNG, or PDF format and should be no larger than 10 megabytes in size.
• Photographs and digital art work should be medium to high resolution (300 dots per inch or higher.)
• Computer-generated art work can be created using Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher/PowerPoint, or any other graphics program.
• Only original art work will be accepted. Submissions must not contain images created by anyone other than the student.
• Entries must be emailed to digitalarts@mwdoc.com, or post entries to the Municipal Water District of Orange County facebook page. In the email subject line, type: Digital Arts Contest.
• In the body of the email, include: student’s name; grade level; school name; teacher’s name; home phone number and email address.
• Include two-three sentences explaining how the art work/photograph was created.

Please visit our website for contest entry forms.

During the month of December, IRWD customers collectively used 13.1 percent less water compared to December 2013. While this reduction in water use is slightly under the monthly water savings target for December, if IRWD customers continue saving water in the coming months, the District remains in good shape to meet its overall savings target. For the seven-month period of June-December 2015, water use in the IRWD service area dropped 17.4 percent from the same seven-month period in 2013. IRWD's overall target is 16 percent. 

IRWD customers have performed admirably in heeding the state's calls to reduce water use, saving over 2.2 billion gallons of water since June 1st. It is expected that statewide water use restrictions will continue through next summer and fall, requiring continued diligence on the behalf of all residents to make lifestyle changes that use less water.

With an El Niño system that has brought moderate rainfall to the region in recent weeks, IRWD reminds its customers to turn off their sprinklers for the remainder of winter in order to prevent the needless use of water. Residents now also have two different options for removing their turf and replacing it with drought friendly landscaping. The DIY turf removal program pays customers $2/sq. ft. of turf removed, while the Turn-Key turf removal program provides full turf removal and landscape installation services at an extremely competitive cost.

It is also a great time to take advantage of the rain by purchasing one or more rain barrels, which can be purchased online or at one of the District's upcoming Home Depot Parking Lot events in January. Event details follow below:

Saturday, January 16th - 8 AM to 12 PM
Home Depot, 20021 Lake Forest Road in Lake Forest

Saturday, January 23rd - 8 AM to 12 PM
Home Depot, 6200 Irvine Blvd in Irvine

Attendees will have the opportunity to apply for rebates on the purchase of rain barrels and high-efficiency toilets, as well as sit in on a rainwater harvesting workshop.

For more information, please visit the IRWD Drought and El Niño pages. To find out which rebates IRWD offers to its customers, go to rightscapenow.com/rebates.

Get warmed up for your spring planting by assisting Sea and Sage Audubon volunteers in giving more than 100 plants a new home at the San Joaquin Marsh’s new Pollinators Garden on Saturday, January 16, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

This garden is located adjacent to the meadow behind the Duck Club. It was designed to attract bees, which are responsible for pollinating about one third of the food consumed by humans. Bee populations have been declining in recent years and the creation of pollinator-friendly gardens is seen as a way to help the bees.

Sea and Sage and Irvine Ranch Water District began developing the demonstration garden plot in October, with installation of a rabbit-proof fence. The purpose is to use a variety of native plants so something is in flower during each season. No pesticides will be used and dead limbs will be safely left as nesting sites and to provide a native bee post.

On the planting palette is Manzanita, ceanothus, island bush snapdragon, bladderpod, white sage, black sage, California fuchsia, California goldenrod, coyote mint, desert penstemon, foothill penstemon and apricot mallow.

If you would like to join Sea and Sage on Saturday, RSVP with Trude Hurd at (949) 261-7964, or seaandsage@sbcglobal.net. Meet behind the Duck Club and bring a shovel, gloves and kneeling pad. Minimum age for participation is 13 years of age and children must be accompanied by an adult.

The event will be rescheduled if it rains.

More information about the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary is located on our website.

In November, stainless steel domes were lifted with a crane onto three egg-shaped methane digesters at the Irvine Ranch Water District’s Biosolids and Energy Recovery construction site, marking a significant milestone for the project. Construction on the facility began in 2013, with completion expected in early 2017.

The $167 million Biosolids and Energy Recovery Project is hailed as a state-of-the art organics-handling system, located at the Michelson Water Recycling Plant in Irvine. Biosolids are the organics removed during the recycled water treatment process. They will be converted into pellets for use as fertilizer and the biogas produced during the process will be used to generate electricity.

The egg-shaped digesters are considered the heart of the facility for their function. Sewage sludge, the by-product of the water recycling plant, will fill the egg-shaped digesters up to the bottom of their stainless steel domes. The bacteria in the digesters will reduce the volume of sludge and generate biogas. It is here that the biogas will be collected under the dome, cleaned and used on-site to generate the electricity to help power the recycling process at MWRP. The remaining sludge will be dried and made into fertilizer.

The egg-shaped digesters are constructed of carbon steel metal plates, bolted together and seismically bolted to the foundation. They will be covered with green metal cladding when complete. The unique shape is seen as more efficient for heating and mixing than digesters shaped like water tanks and used at other treatment facilities.

Processing biosolids on-site at the Michelson Water Recycling Plant is expected to save IRWD customers an average of $100 each year over the next 20 years. Currently, biosolids produced at MWRP are sent through buried pipelines to the Orange County Sanitation District for processing.

More information about the Biosolids and Energy Recovery Project is available on our website.