Irvine Ranch Water District Resident Tour Offers an Insider’s Look

Tour Participant Chronicles Own Experience

Irvine Ranch Water District’s Annual Always Water Smart Tour program provides a behind the scenes look at the District and educates participants about water resources, water supply issues, rates, conservation, water quality and more.

Fifty IRWD customers, including myself, showed up at the District’s headquarters on Sand Canyon Avenue early one recent Friday morning for one of the District’s regular half-day resident tours.  Over the next several hours, I enjoyed – really enjoyed! – a comprehensive guide to IRWD, from macro to micro, underground to up in the air.

We started with the macro, as IRWD Director Douglas Reinhart (who would be our guide for the rest of the tour) introduced us to the District, its history, where it gets its water from, the innovative IRWD allocation rate structure and recycled water leadership and many other issues. His comments were more interesting than even the outstanding choice of a dozen or so cream cheese toppings to go with the wide selection of bagels that were laid out for us.

From there we boarded a very comfy bus and promptly went underground – or more exactly, we went to learn about what’s underground.  Just across Waterworks Way from the District headquarters we got off the bus to visit the Irvine Desalter facility, where enough drinking water is produced each year for 50,000 people.  Reverse osmosis filters and other high-tech equipment clean salts from groundwater under the Irvine, treating it to drinking water standards, creating a sustainable local source of water that is much cheaper than water imported from Northern California or the Colorado River.

Then, we returned to the bus and drove to the other part of the District’s groundwater clean-up program, this time tucked away on a corner of the Great Park. This facility removes the volatile TCE solvent left behind as a groundwater plume when the Marines left their base at El Toro in 1999.  The clean water produced by the facility is used for irrigation, again saving the District from having to purchase more costly imported water.  This program, funded by the U.S. Navy, is succeeding in stopping the spread of the TCE plume.

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