[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/30/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 30, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

 

POWAY: City seeks to conserve more water

At least 800 sprinkler heads need replaced, officials say

North County Times – 5/30/08

By DARRYN BENNETT - Staff Writer

 

POWAY ---- A wetter-than-normal winter may have spared residents and businesses from mandatory water cuts this year, but the region's water worries are far from over and the city has no plans to quiet calls for voluntary conservation, Poway officials said this week.

"We're not in the clear yet," said Kristen Crane, the city's water conservation manager. "We're still heavily promoting wise water use and conservation."

Water officials said Poway has also joined the conservation movement by studying the possibility of upgrading irrigation equipment in city-owned parks and public areas.

State water officials have declared 2008 a "critically dry year," saying a below-normal Sierra snowpack and court-ordered pumping restrictions in Northern California that are designed to protect the Delta smelt, an endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have made water supplies precarious.

In January, Poway ---- which imports 100 percent of its water ---- declared a "Stage 1" water emergency in the city, warning residents that if they don't conserve voluntarily they could face mandatory restrictions later.

Many county agricultural customers, including 74 in Poway, have already received 30 percent less water since the beginning of the year under a Metropolitan Water District plan.

Metropolitan is the water wholesaler for Southern California. In exchange for a 30 percent discount, growers agree to be first in line to get reductions of up to 30 percent or more if there's a severe enough water shortage.

Crane said that while water officials have been urging residents to conserve, the city has its own work to do to become more "water-wise."

Last month, water officials evaluated the irrigation system in place at Poway Royal Mobile Estates, a 51-acre, city-owned mobile-home park, and found that all of the park's 800 brass sprinkler heads need to be replaced, Crane said.

Crane said all of the heads were outdated and many of them were leaking. She said the park's four-man landscaping crew in the next several months will begin replacing the heads "a few at a time."

"It's an overwhelming job and not realistic" to have crews replace all of the heads at once, she said.

Crane said she didn't know how long the project would take, but estimated it would cost roughly $8,000 to replace all 800 heads. She said the city plans to seek a grant from Metropolitan to pay for the project.

The city has also applied for a $25,000 grant from Metropolitan to install "smart" weather-based irrigation controllers throughout Poway Royal and other city properties, officials said.

Different from standard automatic timers that turn on sprinklers at set intervals, a smart controller uses "real-time" weather data and site information, such as soil and plant type, to adjust watering times and frequencies.

"They are not simple devices," Crane said. "But they are efficient."

Under a plan called "The 20-Gallon Challenge," Poway customers have been asked since January to voluntarily cut back 10 percent of their water usage by not washing down driveways and sidewalks, watering only before 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., and turning sprinklers down, among other things.

In recent months, the city has turned off irrigation systems at city parks and publicly maintained landscaped areas and installed a drinking fountain for dogs at the Poway Dog Park that uses less water than a spigot, officials said.

Crane said everyone in the region needs to find more ways to conserve the scarce resource.

"I'm very concerned about this time next year," she said. "Where will we be?"#

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/28/news/inland/poway/z6cf527346dc927088825745600806c51.txt