Clean Car Can Say, ‘I Saved Water’
Car washes have two superpowers. They keep your car sparkly clean. And compared to washing a vehicle with a hose and soapy water, they can save water.
Checkered Flag Express Car Wash in Lake Forest is a star example. The local business was recently honored by IRWD as a certified WaterStar. By employing a water-recirculation system, it uses about 75% less drinking water on average for each vehicle washed, compared to traditional car wash methods. Recirculation technology retrieves water used in the washing process, removes dirt from the water through filtration or treatment systems, then reuses the water on the next wash or subsequent rinse.
A typical traditional car wash uses 50–80 gallons of fresh water per vehicle. Checkered Flag’s system uses fewer than 20, making up the difference with reused water. Thus, one car wash can save more than 6 million gallons of drinking water a year.
The water eventually is released into the sewage collection system—where it is reborn yet again through IRWD’s recycling process.
To find a car wash in your area with a recirculated-water system, watch for ads online, in local papers, and on car wash signs.
At New Great Park Ice, the Rinks Use Recycled Water
2016 World Junior Figure Skating champion Marin Honda of Japan takes Great Park Ice for a spin during warmups for the March 7 grand opening
Lace up those skates and hit the rink. You won’t be wasting water at the Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena sports complex.
The Anaheim Ducks’ new training complex—which celebrated its grand opening in April—will feature three National Hockey League-size ice rinks and one Olympic-size rink. So it will use a lot of water. About 4.3 million gallons are needed to make the ice each year, including the water sprayed from the back of Zambonis during resurfacing.
The good news: It’s Irvine Ranch Water District recycled water. And every gallon of recycled water saves a gallon of drinking water for use in homes and businesses.
“This has been an innovative collaboration between the Ducks’ foundation and IRWD, and the whole community will benefit,” IRWD Recycled Water Project Specialist Gabe Vargas said. “It’s the first dual-plumbed complex in IRWD’s service area constructed to use recycled water for ice—and the second in Southern California.”
In addition to serving as the Ducks’ training facility, Great Park Ice will host youth and adult hockey, world-class figure-skating competitions, and public open skating.
The 280,000-square-foot complex is situated on 13.5 acres near the Palm Court at the Great Park in Irvine. Like all of the Great Park, its landscape is irrigated with recycled water.
What is Recycled Water?
Learn how recycling saves water while keeping our community green and beautiful. Watch our three-minute video at IRWD.com/recycledwater
Spring Forward for Water Efficiency
Evenings will become lighter beginning Sunday, March 10, 2019, as we set our clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time.
Remember to make this adjustment to your clocks before you go to bed Saturday night.
The semiannual time changes coincide with seasonal changes in weather, when irrigation controllers and sprinkler times should change. Your landscape’s water needs decrease as the days get shorter and cooler, and increase as days get longer and hotter, so it’s a good idea to check your controller at the same time you change your clocks.
To ensure that your sprinkler schedule is not interrupted, change the batteries in your controller as well. Most controllers use a 9-volt battery to maintain the programmed schedule in the case of a power outage. When the controller battery dies, the schedule automatically resets to the factory default of watering 10 minutes a day, seven days a week.
And while you are changing out your irrigation controller battery, it’s also a good time to change out the batteries in your home smoke detectors.
2019 Science Fair Water-Related Project Winners
Irvine Ranch Water District participated in project judging for the annual Irvine Unified School District Science Fair on Feb. 6, 2019, at Northwood High School. Students entered dozens of water-related projects, and four were chosen for recognition. Students will be honored at the IRWD board meeting on May 29, and the winning students’ schools will each receive $100 toward their science education programs. IRWD has sponsored the IUSD Science Fair since its inception and congratulates the following students.
Emily Dissanayake
Cypress Village Elementary
Oil Spill Clean-up
Jongmin Chae
Oak Creek Elementary
How does the time of day affect pH in pools?
Riya Gupta & Akhila Dhurjati
Stonegate Elementary
Solar Water Heater
James Chen
University High School
Environmentally relevant reactions between dinitirogen pentoxide with organic acids and chlorine ions at seawater surface
Special thanks to the IRWD judges: Courtney Bonilla, Jessica Lieuw, Toni Lynch and Allan Pascual.
IRWD Data Drives Smart Sprinklers
Changes in the weather say a lot about your landscape’s water needs. That’s why IRWD operates three weather stations—in the coastal, central and foothill regions—to continually monitor site-specific data such as temperature, solar radiation, wind and humidity. The information gathered is used to calculate the amount of water landscape needs to thrive in its specific climate zone.
IRWD recently moved its central weather station to a facility operated by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. As a part of our partnership, IRWD renovated the nearby UC ANR station, which is part of the California Irrigation Management Information System network of over 145 weather stations statewide. Having the two stations almost sideby-side helps researchers compare data for optimal accuracy.
If you have a smart controller at your home, it uses live or historical weather data to manage watering times and frequency. Your controller receives data from an on-site sensor or a signal from a local weather station. By automatically shutting off on cold and rainy days, it can cut water use 15-30%.
Working together, IRWD and UC ANR put on workshops and events throughout the year, helping residents adopt water-efficient and sustainable practices for their gardens.
To learn more about weather data, visit RightScapeNow.com/landscape-resources/et-weather-center. If you don’t have a weather-based irrigation controller, we might have a rebate to help you buy one. Find out at RightScapeNow.com/rebates.
