Published: Sep 02, 2019 | 17:08 PM

Making the Most of a Good Thing

Irvine Ranch Water District customers see many benefits of recycled water in our community. It’s used to water our lush parks and medians, for business and industrial uses - even for fighting wildfires. It makes up a quarter of IRWD’s water supply, which reduces our dependence on expensive imported water and makes our community more self-sufficient. And that helps keep your water rates low. In short, recycled water is an affordable and drought-proof source of water for many uses, just not for drinking.

How is recycled water stored?

Recycled water is produced every day, rain or shine. Sowe collect it in four seasonal storage reservoirs.However, we don’t have enough capacity forall the water we recycle. In the cool, wet wintermonths, the reservoirs fill up, and we run out ofroom. Then in the summer, when communitiesstart watering again, we don’t have enoughrecycled water—and we need to buy expensiveimported water to make up the difference.

How is IRWD planning for the future?

To be sure recycled water is availablethe community needs it, IRWD is proposing to expand the existing Syphonproposing to expand the existing SyphonReservoir. For more information and avideo explaining the proposed project, see SyphonReservoirProject.com.