A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 19, 2008
2. Supply –
Editorial:
Air conditioning, water planning and a closing window
Cash could rain on water savers: City considers $1,000 rebates for xeriscapes
The Dessert Sun – 5/17/08
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Editorial:
Air conditioning, water planning and a closing window
By MATT POPE
When Willis Carrier patented the air conditioner in 1906 he probably didn’t realize that he had just introduced a sea-change in urban-planning: would
An insight I gained from a presentation by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) at the American Planning Association’s conference in
More significant than that, the biggest overall water-consumer in
Nature though, is having her say: During the last decade, 4.5 trillion gallons have been extracted but not replenished from Lake Mead- Las Vegas’ principle water source. In the end, water may what ultimately curtails
Rapid suburban development brought thousands of new single-family homes and retail stores with green decorative lawns and few shade trees to an environment with less than four-and- a- half inches of rain per year, and average peak temperatures of 110 degrees. Currently, outdoor residential and retail uses consume about two-thirds of the city’s water. Ornamental turf draws 73 gallons-per- lawn-foot each year- a consumption rate that would require ten feet of yearly rainfall to sustain.
As a result, city planners are rapidly adapting water conservation measures that have been surprisingly simple and effective. By using “carrots and sticks” and an ambitious outreach program, the SNWA has converted 100 million square feet of decorative lawn turf into a water conserving uses, and has reduced overall water consumption from 350 gallons per capita per day to 260 gallons per capita per day.
A “carrot” that the water authority uses is a rebate in the amount of $1.50 per square foot of lawn that business and residential consumers replace with water-efficient landscaping; a “stick” has been the $400,000 in fines that they have collected from water restriction violators in just one year alone.
Lawn designs are now required to be both smaller and substantively covered by native plants that are well-suited to the dry climate. This design requirement has, according to SNWA, reduced the water demand from the aforementioned 73 gallons per lawn-foot per year, to just 17 gallons per lawn-foot/year.
For larger public uses, vast swaths of decorative lawn areas have been converted from turf to desert landscaping with minimal-to-no water demands. In recent years 52 school lawns and twenty million square feet of golf course turf has been converted to desert landscaping. City public restrooms have been installing waterless urinals and new homes are being built with low-flow toilets and high water efficiency-rated plumbing fixtures.
Conservation alone is not the answer- the SNWA is getting ready to spend between $172 million to $206 million in order to build a new reservoir near the Mexican border - but conservation is a huge component of the water planning equation and, increasingly, it’s an indispensable one.
Obviously,
Each new proposal necessarily runs a gauntlet of water considerations. I think of a recent commercial project before the American Canyon commission when we required the developer to lay down recycled water infrastructure -“purple pipe”-at the start of construction, rather than the unspecified time in the future that he was asking for. Although creating a steeper initial cost that the developer understandably hoped to avoid, the commitment to water conservation in our city planning is absolute, and is being enforced at all opportunities. Drought resistant landscaping, storm water runoffs, and low-flow appliances have also now become staples in every project application that I have seen in the last three years.
We’re entering a new conservation mindset- the era of half-measures is over. While a debate can be had about the size of our population, incorporating conservation and sustainability at the nascent planning stages at least addresses the important reality that the conspicuous-consumption party is over. The conservationist argument has always been to use an ounce of prevention today to avoid a pound of cure tomorrow. Our window on being able to do that may be very close to closed however: high fuel prices and a new round of water-rationing across the nation this summer are the canaries in the coalmine for the non-sustainable growth mindset. #
Cash could rain on water savers: City considers $1,000 rebates for xeriscapes
The Dessert Sun – 5/17/08
By Stacy Wiedmaier
Incentives could soon be in store for La Quinta residents who do away with their lush, grassy lawns in favor of more water-saving landscapes.
City officials say they're working with the Coachella Valley Water District to finalize plans for the incentives, which could include $1,000 rebates.
Details, however, are still being worked out and it could be several months before the rebates are available, said Dan Parks, assistant to the Coachella Valley Water District's general manager.
"It's a sizable investment to make a change," he said. "Desert landscaping is water-thrifty, and you can effect a large change in water use."
The City Council in December unanimously passed a multifaceted water conservation plan with the goal of saving the
The city is spending $50,000 from its general fund to partner with the water district in creating the Cooperative Landscape Water Management Program. The project's goal is to reduce runoff water and inefficient landscaping on public and private property throughout the city.
Businesses, homes and golf courses have been consuming more water from the
"The majority of water usage in the valley is for outside landscaping, as much as 60 to 80 percent," Parks said. "The focus of this conservation plan with the city is to reach the individual homeowner and change people's perspective of what is desirous in landscaping."
The water district uses an existing campaign to replace irrigation meters across the district with more efficient weather-based controls, such as keeping sprinklers turned off when it rains. This has saved millions of gallons of water.
Aspects of the new La Quinta conservation program include:
Offering low-interest loans to homeowners associations to change the community landscaping to help conserve water.
Providing incentives for residents to change their landscaping to better save water, including moving sprinklers from the street.
Studying and starting improvements to save water on public property, including redesigning median landscaping.
Offering free audits to golf courses to suggest how they can conserve turf irrigation.#
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080517/NEWS07/805170326/1141
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