Clean cooling tower distribution basin after service

Orange County · Irvine

Commercial Water Treatment in Irvine, CA

Irvine's office towers, biotech labs, medical centers and campuses run cooling towers and chilled water plants that tenants and researchers count on. Irvine Ranch Water District offers more ways to save on tower water than most utilities, if your treatment program is set up for them. Hydrovida helps Irvine facilities cut water and energy costs and keep equipment clean.

What you get

An on-site look at your towers, boilers and water systems
A written report with what we found
Savings estimates you can take to your team

Get your free water analysis

No cost, no obligation. We’ll follow up to set up your on-site water analysis.

What's in Irvine's water

Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) serves Irvine with a blend of local groundwater from the Orange County Groundwater Basin, local surface water and imported water from the Metropolitan Water District. IRWD also runs one of the largest recycled water systems in the state.

The blend matters. IRWD's 2025 water quality report lists average hardness of 214 mg/L for local treated groundwater, 293 mg/L for local treated surface water and 236 mg/L for imported Metropolitan water, with a range of 52 to 469 mg/L. Dissolved solids ranged from 196 to 748 mg/L. As the blend shifts, a tower can go from moderately hard to very hard water, so testing and control have to keep up. Recycled water brings its own chemistry, including higher salts and nutrients.

Who we work with in Irvine

Irvine is home to large office and R&D campuses, biotech and medical device companies, hospitals and medical offices, universities, hotels and mixed-use developments. Offices and campuses run comfort-cooling towers and chilled water loops. Labs and device makers depend on RO and purified water. Hospitals need documented Legionella control. We already work with facilities across Southern California.

How Hydrovida fixes it

For cooling towers, we test your water, set inhibitor and cycles for IRWD's blend or for recycled water, and install controllers with remote monitoring so conductivity and feed stay on target. If you're converting a tower to recycled water, we set up treatment for its higher salts and biological load. For closed loops, we stop the corrosion and sludge that foul coils and wear out pumps.

For labs, we keep RO in spec with the right pretreatment, and our lab can autopsy a failed membrane to find the cause. For hospitals and any building with a cooling tower, we write and maintain ASHRAE 188 water management plans and run routine Legionella testing. Our chemistry is made by Hydrovida, with NSF/ANSI/CAN 60 certified chemistry options available.

Rebates, credits and discharge rules

IRWD's business water efficiency page offers evaporation credits for cooling towers fitted with make-up and blowdown meters, help converting towers to recycled water, and SoCal Water$mart rebates for devices such as cooling tower controllers. Rebates must be applied for before purchase. We help you meter, document and qualify.

Industrial discharges in Irvine fall under the Orange County Sanitation District's (OC San) source control program, which issues Class I and Class II industrial wastewater discharge permits. We help you keep blowdown and process discharge within your limits.

What you can expect

Across 120+ facilities, Hydrovida customers average a 30% reduction in water use and $36K a year in savings. Eight in 10 facilities we analyze find savings, and we've never lost a customer because of performance. Start with a free water analysis.