Upper San Gabriel Valley MWD Scores Its Third WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award by Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District Oct 3, 2024 Member Submitted News Monrovia, CA – On September 26, 2024, Upper District was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with its third consecutive WaterSense Sustained Excellence Award. Upper District received the award at the WaterSmart Innovations (WSI) Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Sustained Excellence Award is the highest honor the WaterSense program provides for its exceptional efforts in assisting residents and businesses save water and bring awareness to the WaterSense program. “More than ever, consumers and businesses are looking to conserve resources, cut costs, and reduce their carbon footprint,” said Veronica Blette, Acting Associate Director of the Water Infrastructure Division in the EPA Office of Wastewater Management. “Our WaterSense Award winners for 2024 made it easy for Americans to make water-efficient choices and find WaterSense labeled products and homes that save water, energy, and money while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” The EPA highlighted Upper District’s creative outreach efforts to promote water efficiency in 2023. Upper District remained committed to educating its residents on the importance of water use efficiency while expanding outreach strategies and increasing engagement despite the emergency conservation mandates throughout the state. “Upper District is extremely honored to receive this recognition from the EPA. The Board is consistently impressed with the creative efforts of our staff to promote water efficiency and awareness to our communities.” said Jennifer Santana, Board President for Upper District. “Water awareness continues to be an essential tool for the overall sustainability of our local water supply.” In 2023, the Upper District produced a “Droughtbusters” Halloween video focused on WaterSense labeled products, leak detective skills, and water-saving techniques, as well as drought-tolerant landscapes. Upper District also created “Uppy the Blue Nosed Water Hero,” a holiday jingle video focused on drought-tolerant plant options and ways to save water over the holidays. To make water-efficient fixtures more affordable and accessible to customers in 2023, Upper District was awarded a grant through a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation grant program to expand availability of its Water Smart Home Kits, which contain WaterSense labeled fixtures and educational materials. The grant allows Upper District to double the number of kits that can be distributed. Upper District also collaborated with fellow WaterSense partner, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, to implement and promote rebates on WaterSense labeled fixtures, including residential toilets, commercial toilets, urinals, pre-rinse spray valves, and weather-based irrigation controllers to consumers and businesses. In 2023, the District rebated over 350 WaterSense labeled toilets and over 220 labeled weather-based irrigation controllers. Upper District updated its Sustainable Watershed Education program workbook for local schools to include more region-specific information, such as how water reaches homes and ways to save water in the district, as well as a “Use Your Water Sense” activity. Upper District increased the reach of the program by 30 percent in 2023, with over 2,700 students participating. WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by EPA, seeks to protect the future of our nation’s water supply by offering consumers and businesses simple ways to use less water with water-efficient products, homes, and services. For more information about WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense. Upper District’s mission is to provide a reliable, sustainable, diversified, and affordable portfolio of high-quality water supplies to the San Gabriel Valley; including water conservation, recycled water, storm water capture, storage, water transfers and imported water. Upper District services nearly one million people in its 144 square mile service territory. Governed by a five-member elected board of directors, Upper District is a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Annually, more than 78 billion gallons of water is used in Upper District’s service area. For more information about Upper District and the water use efficiency programs mentioned, please visit our website www.upperdistrict.org
