Irvine Ranch Water District is dedicated to strategically planning for the future. Since our formation 50 years ago, we’ve anticipated and met the water supply needs of our service area. IRWD incorporates fiscal prudence, careful forecasting and continual development of new water resources into our long-term planning.

“Providing a safe and reliable water supply for our customers has always been and always will be our highest priority,” said IRWD General Manager Paul Cook. “Anticipating ways to meet our customers’ water needs during fires, floods, earthquakes and other water-related emergencies also plays a crucial role.”

Currently, IRWD is in the planning stages of the Syphon Reservoir Recycled Water Storage Project. Syphon Reservoir is a 60-year-old facility currently used to store irrigation water supplies. The two components of the project are conversion of the reservoir to seasonal storage for IRWD recycled water and augmenting the reservoir’s capacity. When complete, Syphon Reservoir will allow IRWD to utilize 100 percent of its recycled water.

Another upcoming project, which focuses on increased water reliability for south Orange County, is the proposed Baker Water Treatment Plant in Lake Forest. This project will be constructed at the existing Baker Filtration Plant and is intended to increase local treatment capability for multiple water supply sources, including imported water and local surface water from Irvine Lake.

The project will help provide reliable local drinking water supplies in the event of an emergency, or scheduled maintenance on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Diemer Filtration Plant, Lower Feeder Pipeline, or Allen-McColloch Pipeline. IRWD will partner with El Toro Water District, Moulton Niguel Water District, Santa Margarita Water District and Trabuco Canyon Water District.

The Baker plant currently provides filtered well water which supplements the IRWD recycled water system. Operation of the existing plant will be discontinued after the implementation of the proposed project.

The Baker Water Treatment Project will also include a new offsite pump station near Peters Canyon Reservoir. This project is currently in design, with construction to begin some time next year.

For more information on IRWD construction projects, please check our website.

Britany Long, a 2011 graduate of Beckman High School, was recently honored by the Irvine Ranch Water District for designing an updated look for the IRWD water conservation mascot, Aqua Duck.

"IRWD is pleased to honor Britany Long for redesigning our long-honored water conservation and education mascot, Aqua Duck," said Mary Aileen Mattheis, IRWD Board President. "Her artwork will be used as IRWD's official mascot on all education materials going forward."

The Aqua Duck makeover contest was held in the spring and summer of 2011. The conservation mascot has been helping educate students since the early 1980’s. In conjunction with the District's 50th Anniversary year, it was time to bring him into the new millennium with a make-over. The contest received entries from students of all ages from schools within the IRWD service area.

After careful consideration, Britany’s artwork was selected to represent Aqua Duck. She will be attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco later this month. Britany’s winning entry will be used as the official education mascot on all IRWD Discovery Science Center materials.

For more information on IRWD education programs, please visit our website.

Irvine Ranch Water District’s El Toro High School Solar Cup team is counting on “Lucky 7” for 2012. The team is optimistic that seven – the number of years the team has participated, will be its lucky number.

For the past two years of competition, they’ve had a run of bad luck. In 2010, a drive shaft broke and last year, a brand new engine seized up and died the first day of qualifying.

“Everything will go right this year!” said Glenn Matyasovich, president of the school’s Engineering Club. “We have a great boat and great team and are adding some new features to this year’s boat.”

Solar Cup is an eco-boating competition sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The seven-month program begins with boat building workshops in which teams construct their boats from identical kits of marine-caliber plywood. Boats are 16 feet long and weigh about 250 pounds.

Throughout the months there are several workshops focusing on technical aspects such as drive trains, electrical systems, solar power collection and steering systems. Race weekend is May 18-20 at Lake Skinner in Riverside where teams will compete in endurance and sprint races.

El Toro’s 11-member team with many returning members from last year, are involved in the Engineering Club. The adviser, teacher Doug Ford, had a special room built at the school a few years ago to accommodate the solar boat construction. Previous boats had been stored at the homes of students and it wasn’t always convenient to organize work parties. Now, the boat is stored on campus and students can come in after classes, or during lunch to work on the boat.

For more information about IRWD education programs, please visit our website.

Beginning Tuesday, February 21, access to the Irvine Ranch Water District Sand Canyon administrative office building from Waterworks Way will re-open with an extra driveway. Additionally, the bill payment drop box has been moved to a new one-way, drive-through location.

“The Sand Canyon driveways will continue to be open,” said Rob Jacobson, IRWD project manager.

The new driveway is located further down Waterworks Way, toward Odyssey. Customers paying their bills may only access the drop box from the first Waterworks driveway, or from the Sand Canyon driveway.

A small area of the new IRWD parking area will remain fenced off for final construction work. Please check the District’s website for further construction updates.