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Water Use Efficiency
Question: Our city has given the Association a water budget for our common area water usage, which is primarily the irrigation system for our landscaping. We are currently over budget, resulting in escalating water bills and penalties. What is the best way to get a handle on our water usage while still keeping our landscaping looking beautiful?
Answer: The answer to this month's question is provided by Sharon Serpico Hanson and the staff of water conservation minded folks at Serpico Landscaping, Inc.
Even though this Winter and Spring 2006 may go down in history as one of the wettest in Bay Area history, it will not change the fact that WATER is a precious, limited and expensive commodity in California. It is predicted that by 2020 the state will face annual water shortages, even in normal rainfall years. Water purveyors and local municipalities are under enormous pressure to reduce water usage and, as evidenced by the question posed above, they are taking substantive measures to limit the amount of water that is used in landscapes. It has become clear that more and more, a fundamental role of your association's landscape maintenance contractor is to be your community's "Water Watch Dog"! This means providing professional services to evaluate, consult and implement water conservation measures for your landscaping.
The good news is that using water conservation measures in your landscaping is not mutually exclusive to having beautiful landscape. It has proved to be true that taking steps to make your irrigation water delivery system as efficient as possible and using water-conserving water management practices will also help improve the look and health of your plant material. This is a win-win situation!
Know Your Irrigation System
Your association Board Members need to have a report that will clearly inform them of the current state of the irrigation system.
- What's wrong with the existing irrigation water delivery system?
- How can it be made as efficient as possible?
- What are the costs?
- How can we prioritize and budget for such an expense?
- How will this upgrade project impact our landscaping?
- Does the Association water provider have a rebate program?
- Can we see our water use history?
- How much water can we expect to save?
- Is the irrigation water metered separately from the domestic water? If not, how can we do that?
- Are irrigation water controllers up to date?
Improve Your System
Once the Board knows what needs to happen, it must then make a commitment to implement the plan. Start now. You don't have to do everything at once, but you should plan and budget for doing this work until it is completed. Take advantage of any and all rebates that are being offered by the local water company. It's a fact that deferred irrigation system improvements will only cost much more and the clock is ticking Ð water prices continue to rise and the cost of materials such as polyvinyl chloride used in sprinkler systems has been increasing due to higher petroleum prices and demand.
Maintain And Monitor Your System
Getting the irrigation water delivery system up to speed is just the start of water wise management of the system. Irrigation systems must be checked and monitored for maximum effectiveness. Ask your landscape contractor to do the following tasks:
- Perform daytime irrigation system checks twice a month to spot problems early.
- Make timely repairs; water running down the drain or onto the building is a waste of money and can cause hardscape damage.
- Read any water meters dedicated to landscape water use only weekly.
- Adjust the watering schedule frequently to match weather conditions and plant needs, not the calendar.
- Multi-cycle irrigation controllers to allow for maximum water penetration into the soil.
- Review landscape water bills every billing cycle.
Final Tips
Here are some other ideas for using landscape water effectively:
- Improve the soil by increasing permeability to help reduce run-off.
- Aerate any turf on site twice a year to help water penetrate and reduce run-off.
- Mulch planter beds to reduce thirsty weed growth and moisture loss through evaporation.
- Group plants by water needs and focus on using water-conserving plants when plant materials are updated.
- Reduce turf areas because grass needs more water than other plant materials.
A good professional landscape maintenance company can provide a Board and Association Manager with all of the information and guidance needed to improve the irrigation water delivery system on a property. Many local water districts also have water conservation departments that will point you in the right direction and provide more information for help.
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