Irvine Ranch Water District Hosts Landscape Events
Just in time for fall planting, Irvine Ranch Water District is hosting a free landscape class on Friday, September 20 and another event at the Lake Forest Home Depot on Saturday, September 21.
The landscape class is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. on September 20 at the Irvine Ranch Water District offices at 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue. Come learn about creating a water-efficient landscape from the landscape experts.
Sign up at AWS@irwd.com with your name and the number of attendees.
On Saturday, Home Depot in Lake Forest is hosting a garden event in conjunction with IRWD from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The store is located at 20021 Lake Forest Drive.
Receive special discounts on select varieties of attractive water-efficient plants. Enjoy vendor displays, educational demonstrations, give-aways, and more.
Learn from local experts how to plan a water-efficient landscape, while saving money and beautifying your yard.
Experts will be on hand to assist customers with updating their landscaping to use less water, while maintaining a colorful, lively appearance.
As an added bonus, present your current IRWD newsletter, Pipelines, at the IRWD display and receive a special prize.
More information about garden-friendly landscapes is available at our website.
IRWD Financial Planning Keeps Customer Rates Low
IRWD has a solid financial foundation to ensure its tradition of excellent service and low rates for our customers. A key element of this foundation is setting aside funds now to pay for future expenses related to refurbishing and replacing the District’s infrastructure assets. These are the assets that enable IRWD to provide, both now and in the future, a highly reliable and cost-effective water and sewer service to more than 330,000 residents of Orange County.
IRWD serves about one fifth of Orange County and has capital assets worth over $1 billion that include more than 1,900 miles of drinking water pipelines, more than 900 miles of sewer pipes, 53 reservoirs and two large water recycling facilities. This year alone, IRWD will invest over $110 million for new facilities and replacement of facilities that have reached the end of their useful lives. Looking out over the next 20 years, IRWD’s future capital infrastructure plan has more than 500 active and planned projects.
All of IRWD’s facilities, whether it be the groundwater wells, pump stations, or pipelines, will need to be repaired at some point and eventually replaced. To prepare for both short-term and long-term expenditures for these projects, IRWD has planned extensively for the infrastructure needs of our customers by designating $404 million in restricted funds in accordance with General Accepted Accounting Principles and the Government Accounting Standards Board.
For many years, IRWD has honored its commitment to protect our customers from unnecessary and costly increases in rates through sound business practices, both technical and financial. Proactive planning for the future provides IRWD customers today’s gold standard in service and reliability at the lowest possible cost.
Contact: Shannon Reed, Public Affairs Manager
reeds@irwd.com, (949) 453-5500
The 411: What You Need to Know About Your Water in an Emergency
Emergencies come in all forms, whether they are fires, floods or earthquakes. Any of these could cause disruptions in water service, so it is best to be prepared. In honor of Emergency Preparedness Month, here are the top four things you need to know about your water
in an emergency:
1. CodeRED.The first step toward preparing for a water emergency is signing up for CodeRED, the IRWD high-volume, high-speed system for mass emergency notifications. Customers have the option of receiving voice, email or text messages whenever there is an emergency. To sign up for CodeRED, visit www.irwd.com and click on “Emergency & CodeRED.” From there, click on “CodeRED Community Notification Enrollment Form.”
2. Water Storage.A supply of stored water may be your most important survival item. Several
gallons of stored water per person can last two weeks. Commercially bottled water is one option. Containers of heavy, opaque plastic with screw-on lids are best if you bottle your own water. All stored water should be clearly labeled and replenished every six months.
3. Boil Water.After a disaster, tap water may be polluted. Water boiled for five minutes will usually be safe from contamination. If boiling is not an option, strain the water through paper towels, paper coffee filters, or several layers of clean cloth to remove any sediment. Treat the water with household liquid chlorine bleach. Add eight drops of bleach per gallon of clear water, or 16 drops if water is cloudy.
4. Safe Water.There are hidden sources of safe water in your home you may use without purifying. Turn off the energy supply to the water heater and let the tank cool. Let air into the tank by opening a hot water faucet, or disconnecting the hot water line at the top of the tank. Open the faucet at the bottom of the tank to drain water into a clean container. Melted ice cubes from your freezer and many canned foods are packed in water, like vegetables and
beans. Water from the toilet tank, not the bowl, can be a water source unless chemicals have been added for cleaning purposes.
Contact: Shannon Reed, Public Affairs Manager
reeds@irwd.com, (949) 453-5500
Inner-Coastal Watershed Cleanup Day on Tap
Irvine Ranch Water District will host a cleanup site at San Diego Creek for the 13th consecutive year on Saturday, September 21. Drop by the site on Riparian View, just off Michelson Drive, to do your part in helping the environment.
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 17 years ago.
Over the years, more than 28,000 volunteers have participated in cleaning up one million pounds of trash and recyclable materials.
Nearly all of inland Orange County is covered, much of the Coyote Creek Watershed along the Los Angeles and Orange County border, and expansion continues 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 Receives Emergency Water Trailers
IRWD has added more tools to its emergency response toolkit – two 2,000-gallon potable water trailers that may be hauled to wherever there is an emergency or water outage.
“This project was two years in the making,” said John Dayer, IRWD Fleet Services Manager. “We were involved in helping to write grants and work on the specifications.”
The 2,000-gallon polyurethane tanks are mounted on heavy duty trailer chassis and contain 10 spigots for filling containers from water bottles to buckets and jugs. Of the 12 that were delivered to cities and county water agencies that requested them, IRWD received two.
“That’s because of our size – we stretch from the foothills to the ocean,” Dayer said.
The Municipal Water District of Orange County received a $431,000 Department of Homeland Security Urban Area Security Initiative Grant for the purchase of equipment to improve retail water agencies capacity for response to major disasters. A panel of representatives from most of the water agencies in Orange County, including IRWD, determined that the acquisition and strategic distribution of potable water distribution trailers would enhance local agency response in case of temporary interruptions in the potable water supply.
One of the trailers will be placed in the Santiago area, while the other will remain at the Michelson Water Recycling Plant, which is a central location.
The purpose of the trailers is to act as a stop gap measure between residents’ own resources, the District’s ability to restore distribution, and the time it takes for outside resources to arrive at the site of a major disaster.
All residents are encouraged to store a minimum of three to five days of disaster supplies, which includes the water needed for drinking, cooking and cleaning from such sources as toilet tanks, water heaters, and cases of bottled water.
The potable water trailers are one method of many possible ways to bring drinking water to the public. IRWD will be able to use already treated water from reservoirs and tanks to fill the trailers and deliver water to public points of distribution.
Interesting trailer facts:
- Why 2,000 gallons – that’s one day’s minimum recommended emergency water sup0ply of drinking water for 2,000 residents
- Agencies hosting the trailers will be registered through the Food and Drug Administration as Licensed Water Haulers
- The trailers will be stored empty to ensure that the freshest water is used for distribution to the public
- Each trailer full of water weighs just under 24,000 pounds – 16,660 of that is water weight
- In addition to providing water for emergencies or outages, the trailers can also provide water supply for minor hazardous material incidents where water decontamination shower units may be required to ensure the health and safety of responders in the field
- The trailers are a mutual aid resource that will be shared between the water ut9lities within Orange County.
