The art of water efficiency
Vivienne Tsang is an IRWD customer who really gets it. She knows water is too precious to use just once—which is why recycled water is important.
Vivienne, from Jennifer Condon’s third-grade class at Canyon View Elementary, is a winner of the 2021 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Water Awareness Poster Contest. Her artwork, which will appear in the agency’s 2022 calendar, concisely illustrates how IRWD teams up with natural microorganisms to clean up the water that goes down your drains, then pumps it through purple pipes for irrigation and other cool uses.
Kids, visit IRWD.com/postercontest to enter this year’s contest. And click IRWD.com/recycled-water to learn all about recycling. Congratulations, Vivienne!
Storing more water for dry times ahead
Recycled water keeps our community green and beautiful, even during periods of drought. It makes up 27% of IRWD’s water supply and is used to irrigate 85% of all common areas throughout our service area. Every gallon of recycled water we use saves a gallon of drinking water. And that adds up to 28 million gallons a day.
But even with four local reservoirs to hold it, we need more capacity to store all the water we recycle.
Managing recycled water is a balancing act: During cool, wet winter months, the community does a lot less watering; the reservoirs fill up, and we run out of room to store recycled water. Then in the summer, when irrigation demands ramp up, our recycled reservoirs are depleted, and we need to buy expensive water from Northern California or out of state to make up the difference.
To make sure we can make the most of all the recycled water we produce, IRWD plans to expand its Syphon Reservoir in Irvine. The Syphon Reservoir Improvement Project will increase capacity ninefold, from 188 million gallons to 1.6 billion gallons.
It’s an investment in the future that will let us store significantly more recycled water in winter to keep our community green and self-sufficient all year-round—and long into the future.
Visit SyphonReservoirProject.com for more information.
Public hearing on redistricting IRWD Board division boundaries and division maps
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT
PUBLIC HEARING ON REDISTRICTING OF THE IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS DIVISION BOUNDARIES AND DIVISION MAP(S).
NOTICE is hereby given that the IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT (IRWD) will hold a public hearing on the composition of divisions and proposed map(s) in accordance with Elections Code Section 22001. The purpose of the hearing will be to invite and solicit public comment on the draft division maps which are being published by the District prior to the IRWD Board of Directors considering adoption of a new division map.
The draft division maps to be discussed at the hearing will be published and made available at https://www.irwd.com/about-us/district-election-process.
Election Code Section 22000 requires IRWD to adjust division boundaries after each federal decennial census, and using that census as a basis, adjust the boundaries of its Board of Director divisions so that the divisions are, as far as practicable, equal in population and in compliance with Section 10301 of Title 52 of the United States Code. Additional information on IRWD’s redistricting process and/or the public hearing may be obtained by contacting Leslie Bonkowski, District Secretary at 949-453-5312 or on the IRWD Web site located at https://www.irwd.com/about-us/district-election-process.
The Board of Directors of IRWD will hold the hearings on the following Monday evenings at 5 p.m. or as soon after 5 p.m. as is reasonably practicable, in the Board Room of the offices of IRWD located at 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine. Dates of the public hearings and potential hearings, if needed, are as follows:
Scheduled Public Hearings:
January 24, 2022
February 7, 2022
Potential Public Hearing If Needed:
February 28, 2022
Dated: January 11, 2022
Leslie Bonkowski, District Secretary,
IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT
and the Board of Directors thereof
Protecting IRWD’s Emergency Water Supplies
Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) and Rosedale Rio Bravo Water Storage District (Rosedale) own and operate water storage and water banking facilities in Kern County. IRWD’s water banking facilities capture water during wet times that would otherwise be lost and store the water for use during drought and other water shortages. The facilities provide an emergency water supply for IRWD.
Due to the historic use of soil fumigants containing 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP, soil and groundwater in Kern County have been contaminated with the human-made chemical. Over time the TCP has migrated and contaminated some of IRWD’s and Rosedale’s water banking facilities. While IRWD continues to meet all drinking water standards and only serves safe drinking water to its customers, this contamination has harmed the water banks owned and operated by IRWD and Rosedale, and jeopardizes IRWD’s emergency water supplies.
While the two public agencies are working to mitigate, remediate and clean up the contamination, they have decided that further action must be taken to hold the chemical companies that made TCP responsible for the damage they have caused. To protect ratepayers and preserve the use of their groundwater storage and water banking facilities, IRWD and Rosedale recently sued The Dow Chemical Company and Shell Oil Company, who manufactured the soil fumigants that contained TCP, as well as Occidental Chemical Corporation, Wilbur-Ellis Company LCC, J.R. Simplot Company, Puregro Company, Nutrien Ag Solutions Inc., and Southern Valley Chemical Company, who were distributors of those fumigants in Kern County. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages from these companies to cover the costs associated with IRWD’s and Rosedale’s mitigation and clean-up of the TCP contamination.
What is 1,2,3-trichloropropane?
1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP, is a highly toxic substance, human-made chemical compound. From the 1940s to the 1980s, TCP was an unnecessary impurity in certain soil fumigants used to control microscopic worms that infest plant roots.
TCP migrates easily through soil and groundwater, and resists natural degradation. For this reason, it has contaminated groundwater in some areas of California, including in Kern County. It is difficult and costly to remove from groundwater.
Is IRWD drinking water safe?
IRWD is confident that the drinking water we provide to homes, businesses and schools is safe and meets all quality standards set by both the state and federal government. IRWD water quality experts continuously monitor water supply and conduct hundreds of laboratory tests each year on water taken from sample points throughout the IRWD service area.
What is the importance of IRWD’s water bank?
IRWD’s Kern County water storage and banking facilities serve as an emergency water supply for the District. The goal of IRWD’s water banking program is to provide enough water to meet approximately 15% of IRWD customers’ needs during a severe drought or other water shortage. The water bank is an important part of IRWD’s commitment to always provide a clean, safe, reliable water supply to its customers.
Board selects new president, vice president
The Irvine Ranch Water District Board of Directors has selected Steven E. LaMar to serve as president and Karen McLaughlin to serve as vice president for 2022. The selections were made at the Dec. 13 Board meeting.
LaMar has served on the board since 2009. He was president in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2019 and vice president in 2013 and 2018. He currently serves on the Water Resources Policy and Communications Committee and the Finance and Personnel Committee. In 2020 and 2021, he served a two-year term as president of the Association of California Water Agencies.
McLaughlin was elected to IRWD’s Board of Directors in 2020, representing Division 4. She serves on the Water Resources Policy and Communications Committee and the Engineering and Operations Committee.
LaMar is a water policy and planning expert with more than 25 years of experience on statewide business and industry committees. He has participated in many major water policy forums and served on statewide task forces and advisory committees on drought planning, desalination, the California Bay-Delta, the California Water Plan and on water reliability and conservation issues.
McLaughlin, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist with extensive experience in water research projects associated with biogeochemical cycling and contaminant source tracking in coastal waters. She is a senior scientist with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, a public agency providing impartial science for water quality management, where she serves as the regional monitoring coordinator, facilitating implementation of the Southern California Bight Regional Marine Monitoring Program.
