Ranch Wide Projects

The fact that The Irvine Ranch is owned by one primary landowner also contributes to the success of water quality efforts. Collaborating with its conservation partners, the Irvine Company is participating in a series of wide-ranging projects across The Ranch that are designed to capture and treat runoff from the foothills, agricultural fields and urban areas before it can reach sensitive ocean waters and marine life. All ranch agricultural operations, for example, adhere to what are known as "Best Management Practices" designed to protect the environment, from the wide-scale use of drip irrigation-which significantly reduces the amount of water required by traditional irrigation methods-to measures to ensure that storm runoff in the fields and orchards flows into controlled drainage facilities.

Meanwhile, with the Irvine Ranch Water District as the lead, the company is helping to create a regional "Natural Treatment System" that channels urban runoff into wetlands and storm water retention basins within the San Diego Creek Watershed. These wetlands and retention basins act as highly effective water-treatment facilities, expunging potentially harmful pollutants from the water before they can make their way to the bay and ocean. And, in an innovative approach that has earned praise from the environmental community, the company is protecting the sensitive, pristine waters of Crystal Cove. In consultation with scientists, engineers, landscape architects, marine ecologists, storm water management experts and environmental groups like Orange County Coastkeeper, the company created an elaborate "treatment train" that captures surface runoff and puts it through a maze of treatment stations.

Encouraged by the success of the Crystal Cove "treatment train," the Irvine Company created a complex and highly effective subterranean water quality treatment and conservation system at The Resort at Pelican Hill® at Newport Coast®. The resort opened in November 2008.