For the 12^th year, Irvine Ranch Water District will host a cleanup site at San Diego Creek on September 15. The site is one of 23 such sites that span the foothills to the coast. IRWD joins forces with Trails 4All, which conceived the idea of Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean-Up Day in conjunction with Coastal Clean-Up Day 16 years ago.

“Over the past 15 years, nearly 28,000 volunteers have participated and in 2010, we passed the million pounds of trash and recyclable materials collected,” said James Meyers, Executive Director of Trails 4All. “We now cover nearly all of inland Orange County, much of the Coyote Creek Watershed along the Los Angeles and Orange County border and we continue to expand upwards along the greater Santa Ana River Watershed.”

While Coastal Clean-Up Day focuses on cleaning trash from the beach, Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean-Up Day concentrates on getting trash out of the tributaries before it hits the beach. Trash dropped on the street ends up in storm drains and eventually finds itself on the coastline.

IRWD’s site will be located off Michelson Drive on Riparian View, adjacent San Diego Creek and the San Joaquin Marsh. Please wear closed-toed flat shoes, hats, sunscreen and insect repellant. The entire family is invited to learn about environmental stewardship and students can receive community service hours for their participation.

More information on IRWD environmental programs is available on our website.

Irvine Ranch Water District is committed to emergency preparedness and conducts annual drills and exercises for employees. IRWD’s 16-foot-long Emergency Response Trailer is equipped with everything needed for such a response, including orange cones, protective suits, self-contained breathing apparatus, rubber boots and gloves, two children’s wading pools used for decontamination, medical supp-lies, first aid kits, generators and medical monitoring equipment.

“When an emergency situation call for it, IRWD’s highly trained hazardous materials response team utilizes the Emergency Response Trailer to take immediate action,” said IRWD Safety and Security Manager Ken Erwin.

In addition, there are real-life events that put what staff has learned to the test. In October 2007, the Santiago Fire ravaged Orange County and kept IRWD crews across many departments working around the clock to keep the water flowing to firefighters. Crews were out close to the fire lines, installing generators, operating pumps and manually measuring reservoir depths in areas where power and phone lines were knocked out by the flames. Some crews manned hoses to help protect key water facilities. One of the IRWD pump houses in the Portola Hills area was destroyed.

In December 2012, torrential storms caused significant damage to Williams Canyon, washing out a road along with IRWD water mains that supply water service to canyon residents. Over several days, including Christmas, crews worked in the rain to provide access for equ9ipment and construct two water bypass lines to restore water to residents.

Practice does make perfect. IRWD follows the guidelines and procedures practiced in the statewide, six-hour Emergency Preparedness Drill of 2008, one of the largest such drills in the nation’s history in which IRWD participated. To keep our emergency preparedness training current and fresh in the minds of our response team members, IRWD annually participates in a similar, but smaller, emergency preparedness drill.

To help you be better prepared, IRWD encourages you to review our list of emergency preparedness frequently asked questions. While you are there, don’t forget to sign up for the codeRED Emergency Alert System.

Anyone standing on the road above San Diego Creek adjacent the Irvine Ranch Water District San Joaquin Marsh would probably not immediately notice any trash. But climb down the sides to the bank of the creek and tangled among the vegetation a bounty of garbage awaits. More than 100 volunteers did just that during the 16^th Annual Inner-Coastal Watershed Cleanup Day on September 15.

“Coastal Cleanup Day focuses on cleaning up the trash on the shoreline,” explained Jim Meyers, Executive Director of Trails4All. “We thought we would work on that same day to clean trash out of the creek beds before it gets to the ocean.”

That empty coffee cup lying on the beach might have come from further upstream, Meyers contends. Indeed, there were many such cups and the usually rubbish pulled out of San Diego Creek – soda cans, plastic straws, construction debris, clothing, tennis and golf balls, food wrappers, alcoholic beverage bottles, fishing lines and lures, metal rods and aerosol cans. One group spotted a shopping cart in the middle of the creek but decided against wading in to retrieve it. Another group saw a tire, but it was in an inaccessible location. The biggest litter culprit was cigarette butts, with hundreds collected.

Most of the volunteers came from environmental classes and clubs at Northwood High School. There was also a group from Discover Home Loans in Irvine, a Girl Scout troop from Santa Ana, two students from Villa Park High School in Orange and a team from Booz, Allen and Hamilton Consultants. IRWD employees also helped clean the creek.

This was the 12^th year of participation by IRWD. Volunteers fanned out within a two-mile stretch of the creek, from the 405 Freeway bridge to Campus Drive.

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

Irvine Ranch Water District and the Discovery Science Center are entering into the fifth year of a partnership to provide kindergarten through eighth grade classroom water education programs for schools in the IRWD service area. Since 2007, more than 35,000 elementary school students have participated in water education assemblies, while more than 5,000 middle school students have participated in the water quality programs.

“Beat the fall rush and schedule your educational programs now,” advises Shannon Reed, IRWD Public Affairs Manager.

For more than 30 years, IRWD has been providing water education programs in local classrooms, ensuring that students have an appreciation for the precious resource of water in arid Southern California.

Accompanying each K-6 grade program are grade-specific educational booklets featuring the IRWD mascot, Aqua Duck. These programs use individual student response keypad technology for interactive learning. Grade specific topics include the forms of water, water as a resource, ecosystems, the water cycle, water sources, water recycling, energy and resources and California’s water.

Middle school age students can take advantage of a series of career-linked, hands-on water chemistry and environmental resources lessons. Students visit the IRWD San Joaquin Marsh where they sample and test water from the Natural Treatment System ponds and learn how wastewater from their homes is recycled for reuse in the community.