The Current: Spring 2023
Spring 2023 - Issue LV
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In This Issue:
- Plant the Seeds of Savings This Earth Day
- Take a Deep Dive With Pool Water Efficiency
- Spring Has Sprung. Spruce Up Your Sprinklers!
- From Drought Tools to Garden Tours, Sonoma-Marin Gets Out the Efficiency Message
- Colorado’s Northern Water Takes Savings to New Heights
- Big Bear Is Back Again With Even Bigger Savings
Plant the Seeds of Savings This Earth Day
Celebrate Earth Day this year by getting your landscape ready for the warmer weather with smart plant choices and efficient watering techniques. When designing your landscape for this year’s growing season, opt for native, climate-appropriate plants. Plants local to your area require little watering outside normal rainfall and lighten your irrigation load. Grouping new plants together based on irrigation needs also helps avoid overwatering and simplifies your watering routine.
Beautify your spring landscape further by adding mulch to your flower beds and around trees and bushes. Mulch not only instantly elevates the look of your landscape, it helps keep soil cool and moist, reducing water evaporation, decreasing the need for irrigation, and boosting plant health.
Once your new plants are in the ground and it is time to water, try the cycle-and-soak method to reduce runoff, save water, and promote plant health. Water can easily pool on some landscapes with clay-rich soils or slopes when you irrigate for long periods of time. By dividing irrigation runtimes into shorter intervals with breaks in between, cycle-and-soak allows water to absorb into the soil and reduces water waste.
To learn more about how to protect Earth’s most precious resource in your landscape, visit www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoors.
Take a Deep Dive With Pool Water Efficiency
Did you know that evaporation is one of the leading causes of water loss in residential pools? Before making a splash in your backyard pool this summer, make sure it is adequately covered so you can avoid wasting water and money. Installing a solid pool cover can reduce evaporation by more than 90 percent and, in the case of heated pools, save between 50 and 70 percent of pool heating costs.
Water can be wasted if pool leaks float by unnoticed. Keep an eye out for wet spots around your pool, or air bubbles in the water return pipeline or in the pump strainer—these can be signs of a leak. If you live in an area with cooler weather, make sure you prepare your pool properly for the winter to avoid cracking and structural damage. Consider installing a water meter to help actively monitor water consumption and identify potential pool leaks before they inflate your water bill.
As your family enjoys the pool this summer, you can also reduce water loss by not overfilling and keeping pool levels at an appropriate height. Aim for four inches of freeboard, or the distance from the level of the pool water to the top of the overflow or pool deck, to prevent water overflowing when there is activity in your pool.
For more ways to maximize your pool’s water savings, read the Jump Into Pool Water Efficiency guide from WaterSense.
Spring Has Sprung. Spruce Up Your Sprinklers!
Rising temperatures mean that irrigation season is right around the corner! Before jumping back into caring for your landscape, make sure to spruce up your sprinkler system as well. Winter weather can be harsh on irrigation systems, damaging sprinkler components or freezing pipes and valves. Just one broken or missing sprinkler component could waste as much as 1,000 gallons of water per week and up to 25,000 gallons of water in six months—which is why it’s so important to give your sprinkler system a little TLC this spring.
You can complete a “sprinkler spruce-up” this spring in four steps: inspect, connect, direct, and select. First, inspect your system for missing or broken sprinkler heads. Leaks can also occur at the joints between sprinklers and the piping, so connect sprinklers, pipes, and valves well to prevent water waste. Direct sprinklers towards your yard and away from sidewalks and driveways to avoid runoff into storm drains and local waterways. Finally, to ensure your yard isn’t overwatered, select a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller.
WaterSense labeled weather-based irrigation controllers can tailor watering schedules based on local weather and landscape conditions. WaterSense labeled soil moisture-based irrigation controllers detect the amount of moisture in the soil beneath the landscape and override scheduled irrigation when plants do not need water, preventing water waste and promoting plant health.
If you need extra help getting your landscape ready for the warmer weather, go with a pro! Irrigation professionals certified by a WaterSense labeled program can help you reduce your water consumption, save money, and maintain a healthy and beautiful landscape by maximizing the efficiency of your irrigation system. A certified irrigation professional can also perform an audit of your sprinkler system to ensure it’s performing at maximum efficiency. You can find an irrigation pro using this tool on the WaterSense website.
From Drought Tools to Garden Tours, Sonoma-Marin Gets Out the Efficiency Message
Adding to its five Excellence Awards and numerous Partner of the Year Awards for Professional Certification Organizations, the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership won its first Promotional Partner of the Year Award for its outreach activities in 2021. For example, to help consumers navigate prolonged drought and more frequent dry weather conditions, the Partnership held three “Drought Drop-By” events to provide information on water shortages and distribute drought kits with water-saving devices.
In 2021, more than 10,000 kits containing toilet leak detection tablets, WaterSense labeled showerheads and aerators, shower timers, and water-saving tips were distributed in buckets, which could be used to capture water for reuse while waiting for it to heat up.
The Partnership also promoted water-smart landscapes by sponsoring an Eco-Friendly Garden Tour and creating a summer Saving Water Challenge. The virtual garden tour educated attendees about water-efficient irrigation and climate-appropriate plant selection and garnered nearly 5,000 unique webpage views.
During the summer Saving Water Challenge, which Sonoma-Marin held throughout July and August, residents were prompted to pledge to participate in water-saving actions. Over 500 residents participated and received water-saving tips every day of the challenge. They were also entered to win WaterSense labeled products.
Learn more about Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership’s water-saving work and see the rest of our 2022 award winners by visiting www.epa.gov/watersense/watersense-awards.
Colorado’s Northern Water Takes Savings to New Heights
The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Northern Water) has won its third Partner of the Year Award for demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting water efficiency through numerous partnerships and programs in 2021. For example, to help families save water and money on their utility bills, Northern Water donated nearly 200 WaterSense labeled showerheads to the Energy Resource Center for retrofits of low-income housing in Northern Colorado.
Northern Water partnered with Colorado State University’s Horticulture Department in 2021 to produce and co-host the Biennial Short Course, a virtual workshop on water-smart landscaping and horticulture practices for landscapers, master gardeners, municipal employees, and landscape architects. Northern Water also hosted three virtual trainings on how to reuse rainwater on the landscape in collaboration with Colorado State University's Colorado Stormwater Center. Each webinar was offered in Spanish and English and featured live translation to accommodate non-English speakers. With 470 viewers across the three courses, these trainings helped to educate the public on the benefits of reusing rainwater in a way that is both efficient and effective.
In 2021, Northern Water launched a pilot commercial, industrial, and institutional audit program to provide in-depth indoor water inspections for schools, municipal properties, and office buildings. Auditors utilized the WaterSense commercial and institutional water assessment tool to conduct the inspections, and many of the audits included the installation of WaterSense labeled showerheads and faucet aerators. In total, nine properties participated in the pilot, including six schools in the Thompson School District.
Big Bear Is Back Again With Even Bigger Savings
The City of Big Bear Lake Department of Water and Power in California has won its third WaterSense Partner of the Year Award for its outstanding work promoting WaterSense and water conservation to its customers. Continuing its focus on reducing outdoor water use, Big Bear Lake expanded its Outdoor Efficiency Rebate Program in 2021, providing rebates for WaterSense labeled weather-based irrigation controllers and spray sprinkler bodies.
To help homeowners make their yards even more water-efficient, Big Bear Lake collaborated with the Sierra Club and local experts to host a virtual Xeriscape Garden Tour. The tour promoted drought-tolerant, native plants and reduction and reuse of water sources for irrigation. As part of the tour, the department hosted an eight-part webinar series that was broadcast live and made recordings available on its YouTube channel.
To help Big Bear Lake residents save water indoors, the department distributed over 150 water conservation kits during Fix a Leak Week, which included aerators, showerheads, high-efficiency hose nozzles, dye tabs to check for toilet leaks, coloring books, leak trivia, and more. The Department invited kids to join in on the fun too—fifth-grade kids received WaterSense labeled showerheads and aerators to take home and share the water conservation tips they learned with their families.
