Lake Forest prides itself on meandering greenbelts and plentiful parks. Keeping them vibrant takes water—and recycled water is becoming the go-to source to irrigate the city’s public spaces.

IRWD is partnering right now with Lake Forest to convert irrigation systems along public parkways near Bake Parkway, Toledo Way and Jeronimo Road to use recycled water. Flowing through new purple pipe, this highly treated and disinfected sewer water is most commonly used for irrigation. The project, now under construction, will save an estimated four million gallons of drinking water per year.

It’s not the first recycled water project the city and the District have taken on. And it won’t be the last.

“Water-efficient landscaping has been a priority of our city for many years, and the use of recycled water for irrigation makes us good stewards of the environment as well as good stewards of tax dollars because it’s less expensive,” said Tom Wheeler, Lake Forest director of public works. “Water is too valuable to use just once.”

Water-efficient landscaping has been a priority too. In 2016, Lake Forest adopted a policy requiring drought-tolerant plants in new residential and commercial landscapes, with more relaxed guidelines in areas that use recycled water for irrigation. The city’s new Civic Center, under construction on Civic Center Drive, will use recycled water for landscaping and will be dual-plumbed to use recycled water for flushing toilets and urinals.

Water Professionals Appreciation Week was established in 2017 by Senate Concurrent Resolution 80, by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa). Recent labor studies estimate that 60,000 people work in California’s water industry and it needs roughly 6,000 new employees each year due to turnover. The water industry offers a wide variety of rewarding career opportunities in engineering, biology, finance, business administration, law, communications and many more types of positions in high-demand occupations.

The measure was sponsored by a coalition of water associations led by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and including WateReuse California, California Municipal Utilities Association, California Association of Sanitation Agencies, and the California Water Association. Under SCR 80, the annually designated week begins on the first Saturday of October and ends on the Sunday of the following weekend.

Follow Irvine Ranch Water District on social media to learn more.

California’s voracious wildfires require a rapid and aggressive response from fire crews.

Quite often, that means calling in fixed-wing and rotorcraft air attacks to combat challenging conflagrations by dropping water onto the flames.

Irvine Ranch Water District’s open reservoirs are continuously available and frequently used for these purposes.

Even when there is no blaze in sight, local firefighters and other emergency response teams practice their aerial attacks at IRWD reservoirs.

On a recent sunlit afternoon, a mini swarm of Airbus B2 choppers from Anaheim P.D. performed drills at Irvine Lake -- dipping containers called “Bambi buckets” into the reservoir to fill them and strategically release the water in a targeted area.

Good aim makes all the difference when it comes to a successful drop.

The three whirlybirds – operated by the department’s Air Support Division Patrol – comprise a burly fleet of public safety agency helicopters that are trained, ready and able to respond to a wildfire when called.

Orange County Fire Authority also recently performed dip-and-drop techniques at the District’s San Joaquin recycled water reservoir, said Water Operations Manager Ken Pfister.

“It’s an added benefit of our reservoir system,” Pfister said. “These trainings use very little water, but they are extremely effective at helping our fire safety agencies do their job.”

An Anaheim Police Department Airbus B2 helicopter lifts a Bambi bucket load of water from Irvine Lake.

Accuracy in dropping the water is important in firefighting.

A crew watches as a copter hits its target.

The buckets can hold anywhere from 72 to 2,600 gallons of water for firefighting.

Dust and debris are kicked up by the powerful force of the helicopter's rotating blades during landing.

A trio of discarded bicycle frames, the tattered arm of an over-stuffed sofa, a weather-worn soccer ball and hundreds of discarded cigarette butts and snack wrappers were among the items found during this year’s Annual Watershed Cleanup Day event sponsored Saturday by Irvine Ranch Water District.

More than 150 volunteers participated in the event, donning protective gloves as they searched the San Diego River — on the lookout for debris they could scoop up before it makes its way to the ocean.

More than 200 pounds of trash was collected during the five-hour rummage for rubbish. IRWD’s cleanup, based at the Michelson Water Recycling Plant, was conducted in partnership with Trails4All, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation, restoration and preservation of trails and open space throughout Southern California.

The event coincided with California Coastal Cleanup Day – a statewide event organized by the California Coastal Commission with more than 1,000 cleanup locations from San Ysidro to the Redwood National and State parks. Cleanup events in Orange County stretched from the coastline to Silverado Canyon.

Trash tallies from this year’s event were unavailable, but statewide results from 1998 to 2016 were:

• No. 1: Cigarettes/cigarette filters: 7,330,824 (35.96%)
• No. 2: Food wrappers/containers: 2,085,884 (10.23%)
• No. 3: Caps/lids: 1,751,294 (8.59%)
• No. 4: Bags (paper and plastic): 1,530,069 (7.5%)
• No. 5: Cups/plates/utensils: 1,069,074 (5.24%)
• No. 6: Straws/stirrers: 835,425 (4.1%)
• No. 7: Glass bottles: 659,767 (3.24%)
• No. 8: Plastic bottles: 527,352 (2.59%)
• No. 9: Beverage cans: 479,036 (2.35%)
• No. 10: Construction material: 358,733 (1.76%)

Volunteers check in for the California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Volunteers work on picking up the trash at the California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Volunteers haul back trash found during the California Coastal Cleanup Day.