Garden-Friendly Events

Irvine Ranch Water District and two Home Depot stores are teaming up to assist customers interested in updating their gardens to use less water.

These garden-friendly plant events are scheduled on March 9 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lake Forest store on 20021 Lake Forest Drive and on March 23 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Tustin store located at 2782 El Camino Real.

IRWD customers can expect:

• Special discounts on select varieties of attractive water-efficient plants
• Lessons from local experts on how to plant a water-efficient landscape
• Vendor displays, educational demonstrations and give-aways
• IRWD staff and Home Depot nursery consultant on hand to assist you

Present your current IRWD newsletter, Pipelines, at the IRWD booth at either Home Depot event for a special prize.

More information about garden-friendly landscapes is available at our website. Please see an example of suggested plants in the photo gallery below.

Using multiple start times to cycle and soak is a smart way to improve efficiency and reduce runoff. Curious how long to water? Let IRWD suggest a watering schedule for you.

Program A – Grass in summer – four days, three cycles of three minutes. Select the four days that you wish to water. Select three start times, preferably in the morning with an hour of soaking in between. Schedule three minutes for each zone.

Program A Example – Watering days: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Start times: 5 a.m.; 6 a.m.; 7 a.m.
Watering duration: three minutes

Program B – Shrubs or trees in summer – two days, three cycles of four minutes. Select two days that you wish to water. Select three start times, preferably in the morning with an hour of soaking in between. Schedule four minutes for each zone.

Program B Example – Watering days: Monday and Friday
Start times: 5 a.m.; 6 a.m.; 7 a.m.
Watering Duration: Four minutes

“Cycle and soaking” with the irrigation controller results in deeper watering and healthier root growth while reducing runoff. Next time, in Sept 5, you will learn how to use the seasonal adjust or watering index feature to quickly make seasonal watering adjustments.

More water efficiency information is available on our website.

Contact: Shannon Reed, Public Affairs Manager
reeds@irwd.com, (949) 453-5500

Did you know that the average sprinkler sprays two gallons per minute? If a lawn with 10 sprays heads is over-watered by five minutes that can waste 100 gallons.

Oftentimes, over-watering occurs because an entire yard is watered on the same schedule despite the fact its landscape is composed of different plants with different water needs. This over-watering can be easily prevented.

The trick is to:

• Have your sprinkler system separated into hydrozones – areas within your landscape divided and defined by grouping plants together with similar needs.
• To use multiple programs and start times – find the zones (synonymous with valves or stations) which water grass and annuals and assign them to Program A on your controller, while zones watering shrubs or other low-water-using plants are placed on Program B.

Program A will then have its own start times and watering lengths independent of Program B. For example, in summer, grass areas (Program A) the sprinklers may need to turn on four days a week, such as Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, while shrubs (Program But) only require water twice a week. If these different zones were to stay on the same program, then water-use efficiency suffers, along with plant health.

Next month, in Step 4, there will be more details on how to program multiple start times to increase irrigation efficiency and reduce runoff.

More information is available by visiting our website.

Contact: Shannon Reed, Public Affairs Manager
reeds@irwd.com, (949) 453-5500

Irvine Ranch Water District and its customers received three awards from the WateReuse Association’s California Section at the annual conference held in Sacramento.  Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine was presented with a Recycled Water Customer of the Year Award, Satoru Tamaribuchi of the Irvine Company received a Lifetime Achievement Award and Mark Tettemer from IRWD was given the President’s Award.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the industry,” Tettemer said.  “Beyond the success we’ve been able to achieve in our service area, it’s been a pleasure to work with WateReuse California to further our collective goal to increase the use of recycled water – the most reliable source of water we have.”

Crean Lutheran High School

IRWD nominated Crean Lutheran High School for the Recycled Water Customer of the Year honor. Crean Lutheran is a private high school with two unique dual-plumbed buildings that serve more than 500 students and 30 staff members. The school was constructed differently than other dual-plumbed buildings because the two-story modular classroom dual-plumbed building was constructed in numerous sections in Perris, California, then brought to the Irvine location and assembled.

In addition to the modular classroom building, a dual-plumbed Sprung (temporary) structure, which houses the gym, was built.

Crean Lutheran High School was the first high school in the IRWD service area and possibly the State of California to use recycled water for toilets, urinals and priming floor drains in its buildings. The use of recycled water for its nine acres of landscaped area, combined with the recycled water used in the dual-plumbed buildings save more than 10 million gallons of drinking water per year.

Satoru Tamaribuchi

Spending 35 years at The Irvine Company as Vice President Environmental Affairs and as environmental issues manager, Sat Tamaribuchi led efforts to address water resources and environmental issues for the company. He recognized the importance of a reliable supply of water to development and he and the company became supporters of water recycling and water conservation. They worked cooperatively with IRWD to help develop both programs.

During Tamaribuchi’s tenure, The Irvine Company played a key role in completing several recycled water projects including:

• Recycled water to irrigate company retail, office, industrial, resort and residential projects;
• Developing the first and second dual-plumbed high rise office buildings in California which went on-line in 1991 and 1992;
• Using recycled water to irrigate front and backyards at individual residences at large developments, including Shady Canyon and Pelican Hills. IRWD now serves more than 500 such homes in those developments;
• Using recycled water in cooling towers serving office buildings;
• IRWD’s expansion of its Michelson Water Recycling Plant in Irvine; and
• Conversion of approximately 1,000 acres of agricultural land to recycled water.

IRWD estimates that Irvine Company properties use approximately 6,000 acre-feet per year of recycled water. The company has been and continues to be an important partner to IRWD in the implementation and growth of the District’s extensive recycled water programs.

 Mark Tettemer

Tettemer, the Recycled Water Development Manager for IRWD, has worked for the District for more than seven years. He has been instrumental in expanding the use of recycled water in the District’s service area. In 2011, Tettemer led a variety of projects, including:

• Conversion of a water distribution pipeline from untreated imported water to recycled water, including working with several large nursery and agricultural customers to convert their operations to recycled water. The project was completed on June 8, 2011 resulting in approximately 1,800 acre-feet of additional recycled water use per year;
• Conversion of a gas-to-energy facility from potable to recycled water use in their cooling towers. The site was converted on February, 10, 2011 and uses more than 120 acre-feet per year;
• Working with local schools to develop upcoming dual-plumbed campus buildings.

Tettemer was recently re-elected to his fourth term as President of the Orange County chapter of WateReuse California.

For more information about IRWD recycled water programs, please visit our website.