See Your Water District at Work – 2015 Resident Tours on Tap
Have you ever wondered how water gets to your tap, or what happens after it goes down the drain? Learn the answers by attending Irvine Ranch Water District’s ever-popular Water Awareness Tours.
These free tours are offered to those who work or live within the IRWD service boundaries.
Tours are scheduled for Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30. The tours begin promptly at 9 a.m. and conclude approximately at 1 p.m. Included in the itinerary is a walk through the expanded Michelson Water Recycling Plant, a bus trip to the San Joaquin Reservoir and lunch and a tour of the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary.
Visitors will gain valuable information about the water system, sewage treatment, recycled water use and conservation tips. The tours fill up quickly and are first-come, first-served based on the date we receive your reservation. We are unable to accommodate children less than 16 years of age.
Visit our website to register online.
RightScape Makes Water Efficiency Easy: Love Every Drop
A hot bath after a long work out. A cold glass of water on a hot summer day. Watching your kids run through the sprinklers. An afternoon dip in the pool. Happy plants. Delicious vegetables from your garden.
We all love water for different reasons. And we use it from sun up to sun down.
So why not be more efficient with this precious resource?
In honor of Valentine’s Day this year, show your love of water by joining Professor Wright and Roger in using water the RightScape way: The Right Plants, The Right Schedule and The Right Equipment.
RightScape makes it easy to be water efficient. Our website gives you garden inspiration with drought resistant plants, tips on finding and fixing leaks and many other tools to make sure you’re using water wisely.
We can all do one more thing to save water this year. Visit our Facebook page or Tweet us on Twitter (@irwdnews) and tell us why you love water, with hashtag #RightScape.
Professor Wright and Roger can’t wait to hear your story!
For more info, visit our RightScape site.
IRWD Purchasing Department Awarded
For the fourteenth consecutive year, Irvine Ranch Water District’s Purchasing Department has received the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the National Purchasing Institute.
This award is given annually to organizations that demonstrate excellence by obtaining a high score based on standardized criteria. The National Procurement Institute established the award in 1995 to recognize organizational excellence in procurement.
The criteria measures innovation, professionalism, productivity, e-procurement and leadership attributes of the organization.
For more information about purchasing, or doing business with IRWD, please visit our website.
IRWD Area Student Artist Recognized
Ashley Lee was a second grader Hicks Canyon Elementary School in Irvine when her poster was selected by Irvine Ranch Water District for participation in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s 2015 “Water is Life” regional contest last spring.
IRWD received more than 300 entries and sent five finalists to Metropolitan for judging. Now a third grader, Ashley was among 36 students from Southern California whose poster was chosen to appear in MWD’s 2015 calendar.
The student artists were honored at Metropolitan on December 11. IRWD has participated in the contest since inception and has had at least one winner each year.
The 36 posters will be featured in a traveling art show set up in the lobbies of participating water districts, including IRWD at the end of June. Please visit www.irwd.com for an announcement of the arrival of the student art show. At the conclusion of the road show, IRWD will be sent Ashley’s framed poster and she will be honored at a Board of Directors meeting.
A Little Bit of Rain is Just a Drop in the Bucket
Much-need rain has fallen in the area recently, but that does not signal the end of the drought. It will take more than one storm dropping one to two inches of rain on the area to clear up three years and nine months of extreme drought.
Recent storms are quite literally a drop in the bucket when it comes to solving the state’s water issues. Experts say that dry, thirsty soil, which had been deprived of water for so long, blotted up the rain like a sponge, not allowing enough moisture to percolate and recharge groundwater basins.
The state Department of Water Resources states that October 2013 through September 2014 has been one of the driest years in decades. California heavily depends on the Sierra snowpack for its water supply. DWR conducts snow surveys and the first four conducted in early 2014 found a water equivalent far below average for the dates of the surveys. Rainfall is measured at eight stations in the northern part of the state where the rivers feed into the State Water Project.
Electronic readings from those Northern California stations showed that precipitation was only 60 percent of normal for late April, even though there were a few storms in February and March. The electronic readings for San Joaquin stations show less than 50 percent of normal from October 1, 2013, to late May 2014.
So how long will it take to recover from the drought? There are no hard and fast numbers, according to DWR. An exceptionally wet year would be needed, but it looks unlikely, according to DWR.
