Case Study - Irvine Ranch Water District
 These office buildings in Irvine use recycled water for flushing toilets and urinals |
The bathroom of an office building in Irvine isn't where you might expect to find the cutting edge of water policy. But this building, and ten others in the Irvine Ranch Water District, use reclaimed water for flushing toilets and urinals, reducing the building's demand for imported and expensive potable water by up to 75 percent.
The Irvine Ranch Water District covers 133 square miles, about 20 percent of Orange County, handling water and sewage for about 266,000 people. A quick tour of the community reveals mostly housing tracts and office parks bordered by neat landscaping, 80-90 percent of which is also irrigated with recycled water. A few buildings are also starting to use reclaimed water in air conditioning systems.
In dual-plumbed buildings a third set of pipes, "purple pipes", bring recycled wastewater to the building to be used for flushing toilets and urinals |
Irvine has been treating and reusing wastewater for more than 35 years, since the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant first opened in 1967, and is widely recognized as an authority on the subject. Since then their reclaimed water distribution system has expanded to 300 miles of pipes and more than 3,300 customers.
"Our distribution system is so large because it was designed in from the beginning," said Marilyn Smith, spokesperson for Irvine Ranch Water District. "Every time a new street goes in in Irvine there's three sets of pipes that go in there."
Watch the video above to learn how wastewater is turned into reclaimed water at the Michelson Water Reclamation plant |
In 1991, Irvine Ranch became the first water district in the nation to obtain health department permits for the interior use of reclaimed water from a community system. That means they could bring treated water from the system indoors for toilet flushing and other non-potable uses.
With widespread use of recycled water, Irvine is able import 25% less of the expensive water from the Colorado River and California Aqueduct than it would otherwise need to. That keeps Irvine's water rates among the lowest in Orange County, with recycled water for landscape use running 10 percent cheaper than potable water, and for toilet flushing or air conditioning 40 percent cheaper.