Free Programs - Speakers Bureau

A segment of Huell Howser's “California's Water” series featuring Irvine Ranch Water District's (IRWD) San Joaquin Wildlife Marsh and Sanctuary and how wetlands are being used to clean urban runoff has aired on PBS stations statewide. IRWD customers who missed the program may check out a DVD from our lending library free for a two-week period. Call (949) 453-5500 for information.

Howser visited IRWD and spent a day shooting video at the marsh. He interviewed IRWD General Manager Paul D. Jones II, IRWD Environmental Quality Manager Norris Brandt and Trude Hurd of the Sea and Sage chapter of the National Audubon Society. IRWD provides the Audubon Society with a building at the wetlands and the organization in turn provides a number of wildlife education programs for both adults and students in the community. Howser also interviewed members of the public who happened to be walking, jogging or shooting photographs at the park-like sanctuary.

In 1997, IRWD built an expanded constructed wetlands on 320 acres it owns adjacent to the San Diego Creek in Irvine . All storm drains in Irvine and portions of surrounding communities drain to this creek and carry polluted urban runoff into ecologically sensitive Upper Newport Bay and the ocean.

Since the late 1990s, IRWD has diverted approximately two-thirds of the creek's flow into its adjacent wetlands. There, the urban runoff meanders through a system of ponds for seven to 10 days, allowing time for bulrush, cattails and other plants to naturally clean the water. When the cleaner water returns to the creek, it contains up to 70 percent less nitrates and both sediment and phosphorous have also been reduced.

This initial wetland has been so successful that IRWD is expanding the concept to a watershed-wide system of wetlands called the Natural Treatment System. The first four of more than 30 wetland sites have already been completed in Irvine and more are under construction.

The San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary is located on Riparian View Drive in Irvine , just off Michelson Drive (between Jamboree and Harvard). The 12 miles of walking trails are open to the public from dawn until dusk seven days a week. Admission is free.

For information on the air dates for the series on other PBS stations statewide, visit irwd.com. Fore more information on IRWD's Natural Treatment System, visit www.naturaltreatmentsystem.org .

For more information about the "California's Water" series click here.

The California Water Series

Miss the Previous Huell Howser Show Featuring Irvine Ranch Water District?

IRWD Customers May Check Out the DVD from Lending Library

A previous episode of Huell Howser's "California's Water" featured water use efficiency programs of Irvine Ranch Water District. Some of the highlights are shown in the photos below. If you missed this episode, or any of the other programs in the series when they aired on PBS, they are available for a free two-week check-out from IRWD's video lending library (available to IRWD customers only, maximum three videos per check-out).


Huell Howser interviews landscape architect Carissa Paez of the Irvine Company. The interview dealt with water savings from the use of California-friendly landscaping.	Huell Howser speaks with Irvine homeowner Dr. Joseph Renzi (center) and Irvine Ranch Water District's Water Resources Manager Mark Tettemer about weather-based irrigation controllers that use signals from weather stations to automatically adjust irrigation.	City of Irvine Landcape Supervisor Steve Bourke (left) and IRWD's Mark Tettemer answer Huell Howser's questions about synthetic turf at the test plot located in Irvine's Windrow Park. Similar demonstration sites are in parks in Newport Beach, Tustin and Lake Forest.