FONTANA, Calif. — The start of the school year also signals the start of a water conservation effort across six different schools in the Fontana Unified School District. 

Until this year, the six schools had been using potable water, also known as drinking water, for their landscape irrigation system. The project replaces drinking water with recycled or reclaimed water that is used for all their fields and planter areas. 

Scott Lening with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, where the recycled water is coming from, said the term is used to describe water that comes from, for example, flushing or bath water that is then cleaned at a water facility before being sent to customers for landscape irrigation.

Lening said using recycled water helps conserve the potable water, which in turn also means less pumping from lakes and rivers, helping the natural life in those areas. 

The benefit extends across the community as, based on historic averages, the Fontana Water Company said this switch will save approximately 80,000 gallons of potable water per day for city residents every year. 

As for energy, Lening said the process uses less power given there is no need for pumping. 

"That reduction of electricity reduces the need to produce additional power and subsequently reduces the greenhouse gas emissions through the power production process," Lening said. 

He said recycled water is also cheaper, translating to savings for the school district. 

"With all the six sites combined, we look at about a 65% savings, which equates to a little over $190,000 of annual cost savings," said Javier Castrejon, energy manager at the Fontana Unified School District. 

Castrejon said the district is planning on putting that money toward classrooms and educational environments.