On March 15th, Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) was selected as the winner of the 2015 California Water Environment Association (CWEA) Sewage Collection System of the Year Award. The District took home top honors in the large-agency category, which includes organizations that manage more than 500 miles of sewer pipeline.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized as California’s Large Collection System of the Year,” said Paul Cook, General Manager of the Irvine Ranch Water District. “Our goal has always been to provide outstanding services at cost-effective rates for all of the communities in our service area, so receiving this award reaffirms our ongoing commitment to excellence on behalf of our customers.”

Earlier this month, IRWD was chosen as Sewage Collection System of the Year for the Santa Ana River Basin Section, which includes Orange County, as well as parts of San Diego and Riverside Counties. After winning the regional award, IRWD moved on to compete for the title of best sewage collection system in California.

The annual award is presented to the agency that has demonstrated excellence in the programs and procedures of sewage collection.  Agencies are judged on factors that include regulatory compliance, administrative procedures, maintenance, safety & training programs, emergency response procedures, and significant accomplishments including funding and investing in capital projects.

IRWD has provided sewage collection services to Orange County residents for over 50 years. The District currently manages more than 1,000 miles of sewer pipeline, operates 2 recycled water facilities with a combined treatment capacity of 35 million gallons per day and maintains approximately 97,000 sewer service connections. The District cleaned more than 660 miles of sewer pipeline last year.

IRWD previously won the California Large-Size Agency Collection System of the Year in 2000 and the Medium-Size Agency Collection System of the Year in 1996.

For more information on IRWD’s sewer services, please visit the IRWD website.

Over 250 IRWD customers participated in IRWD's Winter 2016 Landscape Makeover Giveaway Contest. The four customers with the most water savings will each receive a landscape makeover valued up to $6,500. The winners of the Winter 2016 Rightscape Contest are:

• Brian Joe - Irvine
• Maria Angel - Irvine
• WIlbur Bhagat - Tustin
• Patricia Grawburg - Irvine

Thank you to all of the IRWD customers who participated in the contest. In total, contest participants saved nearly 1.5 million gallons of water during the period of December 2015 to February 2016.

What are some of the actions participants took to cut back on water use at their homes?

• Limited outdoor water use
• Replaced grass with drought friendly plants
• Fixed leaks in a quick manner
• Took shorter showers
• Used sink and shower water for irrigation
• Ran full loads of laundry

IRWD will document the progress of one or more of the landscape makeover projects and post all of the best photos and other information online at rightscapenow.com.

Over the last nine months IRWD customers have reduced their collective water usage by 15 percent, equating to 2.3 billion gallons of water savings. When combined with ongoing population growth in central Orange County, residential per capita water use in the IRWD service area was down to 53 gallons per day for the month of February, which is a new record low for the District.

Despite a February that was the warmest on record and that delivered much less rain than anticipated, IRWD customers continue to use less water than ever before, which is greatly needed in the midst of ongoing drought and restrictive statewide water use regulations. Emergency regulations were recently extended through October 2016 to help ensure water conservation continues in urban areas throughout the summer.

While IRWD’s residential customers have significantly cut back in recent years, the District has observed decreased water consumption in each of its customer classes, which includes Multi-Family, Commercial, Irrigation, Industrial and Institutional. IRWD has historically offered a variety of water conservation programs and resources aimed at helping customers of all types and sizes use less water.

Total per capita water use in the District over the past 12-month period was approximately 125 gallons per day, another all-time low. This compares with 12-month daily per capita water use rates of 150 gallons or more in recent years. In February 2016 alone, total per capita water use was 104 gallons per day.

As part of its ongoing commitment to provide customers with simple and cost-effective means of saving water, IRWD created a new website dedicated to its many water use efficiency programs. RightScapeNow.Com offers a wealth of information, including rebates, landscape design, events & classes and much, much more.

With Spring around the corner, customers are encouraged to consider the following actions for helping reduce their water use during the warmer months:

• Color Your World with a Drought Friendly Landscape – Discover program options and available rebates at the IRWD Turf Removal Center.
• Attend our FREE landscape design and other Rightscape workshops. Details at RightScapeNow.com/events.
• Purchase drought friendly plants at an upcoming Home Depot Garden Sale Event. Next event is scheduled for March 19^th at 8 AM at 6200 Irvine Blvd in Irvine.
• Perform your own home water check-up. Learn more at the IRWD Online Training Center.

Evenings are about to become lighter beginning Sunday, March 13, as we set our clocks forward one hour in observance of daylight saving time.

Remember to make this adjustment to your clocks before you go to bed Saturday night.

The semi-annual time changes coincide with seasonal changes in weather, when irrigation controllers and sprinkler times should change. Water use lowers as the weather cools, and increases as weather warms, so it’s a good idea to check your controller at the same time you change your clocks.

To ensure that your service is not interrupted, change the batteries in your controllers, as well. Most controllers use a 9-volt battery to maintain the programmed schedule in the case of power outage. When the controller battery dies, the schedule automatically resets to the factory default of watering 10 minutes a day, seven days a week.

And while you are changing out your irrigation controller battery, it’s also a good time to change out the batteries in your home smoke detectors.