by Donald Markstein

Florida’s Lake Okeechobee is several feet below its optimum level. Drought conditions are so bad in the southern part of the state that homeowners are forbidden to water their lawns more than once a week. Parts of Texas experienced drought last summer and fall. Even Washington State, renowned for its abundant rainfall, has at various times been forced to implement water restrictions. Almost every part of the country has had water shortages in recent years — and there is no end in sight.

When the U.S. had a population of 50 million, 100 million, even 150 million, water was cheap and plentiful. We developed bad habits about water conservation. Now that there are more than a quarter billion of us, we have to learn how to stretch our water farther.

And since nobody wants a country full of brown, brittle landscapes — to say nothing of the withering of the $50 billion green industry — that means using techniques to keep our lawns lush and green, but to use less water doing it.
“Anybody can save water,” says Dave Pagano, one of the nation’s leading irrigation design consultants. “Just turn off the tap. But that doesn’t allow you to have healthy landscapes. The trick is to run your system so it uses less water, yet achieves the desired effect.”

There’s a stunning array of products available for doing so — not just simple timers, but also sensors for rain, wind, temperature, ground moisture, and everything put together; and more recently, extremely sophisticated equipment for correlating all that information to decide when and how much water to apply.
But is any of this actually new?

“Not really,” Pagano says. “We have more advanced equipment now than we had in the past, but we’re using the same basic techniques we’ve been using for a long time. We still have to use evapo-transpiration-based programs, monitor the E-T data, and respond accordingly.”

Jeff Carowitz of Hunter Industries expresses his thoughts: “The irrigation industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years; new products are being developed all the time. There are more computers and electronic devices coming into the control side of the business. There are new plastics and more advanced engineering in valves and sprinklers to aid in water conservation. Of course, you still see simple devices like check valves and pressure regulators; but nowadays, they are run by complicated things like computerized irrigation maintenance systems.”

Pagano observes, “Yes, the equipment today is much better than it has been in the past. Certainly, the controls are better than they once were. But there are no radical, new elements. We’re still using sprinklers, drippers, whatever we always used to actually apply water.”

John Blevens, an irrigation design consultant based in the San Francisco area adds, “There are lots of products out there.” But, he says, “In the case of products such as moisture sensors, some people use them, but they can be kind of troublesome. If not put in exactly right, and then carefully monitored, they can give you some pretty wild results. If they’re in a wet area they’re likely to respond as if the whole area was wet, so everything will dry out; and if they’re in a dry area, they’ll keep everything too wet. If they’re too close to the surface, they’ll turn on too often and use too much water. Conversely, if they’re in too deep, some of the shallow-rooted plants might not get enough,” Blevens explains.
“These sensors do have a place,” Blevens continues. “They can be very effective in a large, uniform area, like a park. But for most landscaping jobs, they may be difficult to use effectively.

“Whatever system you use, however, the main thing is to have a knowledgeable person running the controls, “ he emphasizes.

Pagano elaborates on this theme: “Let’s understand something — irrigation does not save water. What saves water is the guy operating the system. If we assume
the system is designed properly, according to the standards set by the manufacturers of the equipment, we can also assume that the irrigation is properly designed —and that the controls are all correctly placed to work effectively.
“If we assume that, then it’s left to the maintenance and operation people — the people who actually run the irrigation control system. I think more people need to realize that the maintenance people need to be involved in water conservation. It isn’t just the design. You can have a well-designed system, but anybody can mess it up if they don’t operate and maintain it properly.

“That’s really the key — having the maintenance personnel do the right thing.”
Carowitz doesn’t disagree, but definitely sees a place for technology in helping the maintenance people do that job. He adds, “People are looking for more automation, greater ease of use, and the technology is giving it to them. The trend is toward increased awareness of the need for water conservation, and toward greater interest in products that respond to that need. This is the challenge that the entire industry needs to look at — something we very much have to deal with. There’s been a steady increase in the need for water conserving products over time, particularly in drought-prone areas,” Carowitz explains.

“But even in parts of the country not immediately threatened by actual drought, the cost of water is going up — pumping costs are rising, and supplies of water are harder to come by. So we’re seeing water conservation being more than just a Southwestern sort of thing. It’s going on everywhere.”

Pagano adds, “Water districts are thinking about droughts of the past. That’s why they’re encouraging people to reduce their water usage. Not all of this takes the form of a regulatory mandate. There’s also more demand for water conservation due to rising cost — and also, to a certain extent, just to greater water consciousness.”

Carowitz concurs. “I see greater water consciousness on the part of many contractors,” he says. “Some are about the same. One of the things we’ve seen on a local basis is that the water agencies are focusing more on irrigation systems —- when supplies are tight. In New Jersey recently, they enacted a law where all new irrigation systems installed must include a rain sensor, primarily as a way of controlling demand for water during the summer months,” says Carowitz.

“But I don’t think the regulatory environment has changed a great deal overall. I think the contractors are mostly responding to greater consumer pressure to conserve water. Everyone is looking at increasing costs due to shorter water supplies, and wondering how they can use equipment that maybe doesn’t cost more, but hopefully offers more features as a way to address those concerns.”
Pagano says, “The trend is definitely encouraged by the water districts, because of the cost of bringing new water to an area. If they can save some water in one area, and resell that water to another area, they don’t have to develop as many new sources of water.

“Of course, it depends a great deal on the project,” he explains. “Where the cost of the water is what’s driving the trend, owners of larger projects have a tendency to be more willing to pay a consultant to help them manage water. On the smaller sites, people tend to do it for themselves, or have their contractors do it.
“It’s like anything. People who have the money can afford to do it. But in turn, they have more to save. For example, if I told somebody I would charge them $5,000 to save $1,000 a year on their water bill, it’s probably not very attractive. But if I told them they could save $100,000 a year on their water bill, and I needed $20,000 to do it, that looks more attractive.”

So, what do these guys recommend in the way of water-saving irrigation techniques?

Blevens says, “As a designer, I don’t recommend products specifically, but I always incorporate water conservation features into my designs. You can ask a hundred different people and get a hundred very different answers. I’m probably a little conservative. I prefer drip irrigation. That’s usually very efficient.”
Pagano is among those giving different answers: “A certain type of plant needs a certain amount of water. The plant doesn’t really care whether you put it on with a bucket or a hose or a sprinkler system, or drippers. What we’re concerned with is applying the right amount of water to the landscape in the right place, in the right proportions.

“That’s more a maintenance operation than design – although hopefully, the design will give the maintenance people the tools to do that.”
Blevens continues, “The project needs to be separated according to the different micro-climates involved — i.e., tools have to be built in to deal with the shade areas differently from the sun areas. And you have to give different watering to plants with different water needs, separating the higher water using plants from the drought-tolerant ones, so they can be watered on separate schedules. Also, for large areas, we try to lay out the equipment uniformly, so as to get a uniform precipitation rate. Basically, it comes down to designing efficiently, and incorporating equipment that has the capacity to correctly irrigate according to the needs of the landscape.

“But design can only go so far,” says Blevens. “The key to me, is the management — proper management, to know the plant material, monitor the moisture in the ground, and to keep track of the evapo-transpiration. The tools have to be in place, but the most important part of the whole operation is having people in place to run it properly.”

Carowitz takes an even broader view: “We say water management is our mission — that’s one of the things we say in our advertising campaign. We’re a supplier of irrigation products that are designed to save water across the board; whether it’s our sprinkler heads, controllers or rain sensors and weather sensors that turn systems off during times of inclement weather.

“These water conservation demands are not going to go away. I think as an industry, we need to get used to that, and figure out how we’re going to deal with it.”

May 2001