Ontario-Montclair School District Recognized for Water-Savings Efficiencies

San Bernardino County’s Ontario-Montclair School District (OMSD) has been recognized by Monte Vista Water District (MVWD) for its ongoing commitment to water-use efficiency in the past decade. The school district is the third largest elementary district in California and includes more than 21,800 PreK through 8^th grade students attend 26 elementary schools, six middle schools, and two alternative programs. The recognition of the school district included the recognition of OMSD’s Lead Plumber Terry Lunt who oversaw the project’s implementation.

OMSD is currently participating in MVWD’s free Commercial, Industrial and Institutional (CII) Nozzle Retrofit Program and it is estimated that the school district will save an estimated 8.6 million gallons of water this year by replacing inefficient sprinkler nozzles with new, high efficiency models. The water district launched the CII Nozzle Retrofit Program in 2017 as an effort to expand the scope of the currently-existing residential Nozzle Retrofit Program and to encourage the nozzle retrofitting program for all MVWD customers.

The school district has completed the retrofitting of all school sites with MVWD’s service area which has included the installation of more than 6,000 high efficiency nozzles. OMSD is projected to see 43 million gallons of water savings over the lifetime of the nozzles.

“For over a decade now, OMSD has been a leader in water use efficiency and we are proud to be able to offer them options to expand their water-saving efforts,” said MVWD Board President Sandra Rose. “We are very excited to continue this ongoing partnership and hope to work together for many years to come.”

While the CII Nozzle Retrofit Program is the most recent water-savings project undertaken by OMSD, it is one of three major water-saving initiatives in which the school district has participated. During the most recent drought, MVWD awarded OMSD $34,064 to replace more than 300 toilets, 100 urinals and faucet aerators with low water use technologies. Replacement of these fixtures will save more than 40 million gallons over the life of the devices – enough water to serve 250 homes annually.

MVWD and OMSD also partnered on a recycled water project in 2008 resulting in the installation of recycled water connections at five OMSD schools. The project has resulted in approximately 240 million gallons of potable water saved since the conversion. The school district is MVWD’s second largest recycled water customer.

MVWD’s CII Nozzle Retrofit Program is open to all MVWD water customers, including residential, multi-family, industrial, commercial and institutional accounts. Approximately 60 percent of water is used outdoors and the majority of it is wasted by inefficient irrigation systems. The nozzle retrofit program includes a detailed evaluation of your irrigation system, free high efficiency nozzles and free installation of the nozzles.