Since The Irvine Company was founded as an agricultural company more than a century ago, it has conserved and reused water by all means available. The company's water conservation efforts did not ebb as it transitioned from an agricultural company to a community master planner in the early 1960s. In fact, they expanded as new communities emerged on The Irvine Ranch, manifesting themselves in myriad innovations that continue to this day.

As a result, the water that keeps a neighborhood's greenbelt so lush and the landscaping along the roads so vibrant has been used before. It might have been used, in fact, a few days earlier to rinse dishes or wash a family's clothes. Along row crops and orchards throughout The Irvine Ranch®, water drips, drips, drips ever so slowly-and ever so precisely-delivering just the right amount to plants and trees while preventing potentially harmful runoff.

Long ago, the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD), which supplies water to communities on the ranch, contended that "water shouldn't be used just once."

And on the ranch, it seldom is. Reclaimed water is ubiquitous here; reclaimed water-along with creative ways of transporting it-has been a core part of the Ranch's environmental legacy since 1967, when IRWD, with support from The Irvine Company, opened the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant. Like all of its conservation and environmental stewardship efforts on the Ranch, the company's success at conserving water is the product of collaborative efforts involving diverse interests, including IRWD, environmental organizations, community leaders and local cities, as well as county, state and federal agencies.

Following is an overview of major efforts to conserve, reclaim and reuse water on The Irvine Ranch®:

    When the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant opened in 1967, it represented the most aggressive commitment to using reclaimed water in California's history. The backbone of the plant is an elaborate dualpipe system that winds its way through the Ranch. One system of pipes delivers fresh water to homes and businesses, while the other system-featuring more than 300 miles of pipeline-transports treated reclaimed water that is used to irrigate large landscaped areas such as parks, golf courses, community greenbelts and roadway medians. More than 20% of all water supplied by IRWD is reclaimed water. This dual-delivery system in 2003 saved more than 23,000 acre feet of fresh water-enough to supply the fresh-water needs of 46,000 families for a year.

    In another collaboration, IRWD and The Irvine Company in the early 1990s pioneered the use of reclaimed water in restrooms throughout several of the company's high-rise office buildings, also using the dual-pipe delivery system. And since the mid-1980s, water-saving fixtures such as low-flow shower heads and toilets have been used in homes, hotels and office buildings built on the Ranch.

    The Irvine Ranch was an early proponent of the extensive use of drip irrigation to water crops and orchards. Drip irrigation uses significantly less water than traditional sprinkler irrigation systems.