Taking Conservation Into Consideration |
One city spreads the word about saving waterby Lynn TiltonIrrigation Management Despite a scant 90-day growing season, Bend, Ore. (population 65,000), which is located in the center of the state, has been rated as one of the top communities to move into. In fact, during the past few years, the city has been adding 1,000 residential/commercial metered water connections per year. Thanks to an active conservation program with a focus on outdoor landscape efficiency, along with fully metering all customers, water use during the past four years has remained flat. Plus, the city's new maintenance plans and landscape specs save water, labor and energy, even while adding 1,000 service connections annually. From private to public Water Resources Coordinator Patrick Griffiths says, “You have to be courageous to be a landscaper or a gardener in this area. We only get on average 4.5 inches of rain during the 90-day growing season, and just 12 inches for the whole year. We’re at a 3,500-foot elevation and can have frost anytime during the irrigation season.” He adds that five years ago, he was hired as the city’s first ever water conservation specialist. “We have around 20,000 meters, with two-thirds of that residential and the remainder commercial/industrial in this, our centennial year.” Although it’s a century old, the city didn’t begin supplying water until it bought out private supplier Bend Water in 1924, getting about 300 connections at that time. Besides drinking water, the city also manages 450 acres of landscaped area. Of that, over 125 acres are irrigated and more intensively managed. “These 95 sites range from 90 square feet to several acres and they require the most attention during the growing season,” Griffiths comments. “We also manage the city cemetery, which has 15 acres.” As the city grew, water became more and more of a concern – existing turf irrigation systems grew older and maintenance became more of a problem – as did the waste of available water. “Together, the concern for water and shortage of labor dollars, made them rethink how they managed their landscapes. At the same time, the city council adopted a goal of sustainability.” Water sources “We have a dual source system, both surface water and well water. About half our annual needs come from Bridge Creek, our only surface water supply. The rest comes from our regional aquifer, which lies between 500 to 1,000 feet below the surface. Annual demand ranges from 5 MGD in winter to a summertime peak of 27 MGD. Our new landscape management goals were guided by the fact that half the water we produce is used outside on the landscape, which reflects the national average for water where irrigation is essential to plant survivability.” Griffiths knows his numbers. Not only does he have a Master’s in environmental policy, but he’s also a board member of the Oregon Landscape Contractors Board, a certified landscape irrigation auditor with the Irrigation Association, and a state-certified cross connection inspector and Level 1 water distribution operator in Oregon. Plus, he’s consulted for museums and on statewide water issues. “Five years ago we began working with our residents and found their irrigation systems were antiquated, inefficient and in need of tender, loving care. In addition, they were not being controlled very well. The bottom line is in the past five years we’ve had to rebuild irrigation systems to increase efficiency, improve head to head coverage and install matched precipitation nozzles. The big win has been moving toward the use of smart controllers, the weather-based controllers. “The city has partnered with several of its larger water customers as part of its Large Landscape program. These partners typically have large turf areas to manage, such as the Bend LaPine School District. Together with the City of Bend they have adopted WeatherTRAK ET irrigation controllers, and have 70 units in place throughout the city at this time. Actual savings, depending on whether the site is 100 percent turf or mixed plantings, range from 20 to 50 percent on water alone. That doesn’t even account for labor saved because city and school district employees don’t have to go out and reset those clocks every time the weather changes.” He adds that for large turf sites in their service area, this move has freed up staff time to focus on other maintenance needs rather than spend that time manually adjusting controllers. “We’ve had the same success with our city-owned sites, and have installed 65 weather-based controllers. We probably have freed up a large percentage of an FTE (full-time employee) minimum out of a staff of five full-time employees and a dozen seasonal workers.” Working with developers Griffiths points out that since Bend is one of the 100 fastest growing communities in the nation, an essential element of their success has been working with developers to encourage water conservation when developing landscapes for new homes. “We work with developers, builders, and home owners’ associations to maximize the knowledge of how to manage these landscapes, what type of irrigation, plant choices and management techniques to use to maximize efficient water use.” This includes the use of tall-type fescues and drought-tolerant plants. Home owners are able to learn more thanks to a brochure, which the city partnered with the Oregon State University Extension Service, “An Introduction of Xeriscaping in the High Desert and Pictorial Plant Guide for Central and Eastern Oregon.” This guide explains the seven steps of creating an efficient landscape and helps assure greater use of drought-tolerant plants. One result is that many new residential customers are demanding more efficient landscapes that are just as beautiful – often saving them water costs over the long run. “Right now we still have irrigation regulations with the even and odd system, with even-numbered houses watering on even days and the odd-numbered owners watering on odd days. Watering on the days of the address helps control peak demand. The downside is we’re training people to water every other day whether their plants need the water or not. In effect, if they chose to install one of the new smart controllers we’re giving them a variance to our rules, yet they’re using less water. The City of Bend supports the landscape industries market transformation effort of SWAT (Smart Watering Application Technology) and adoption of this new controller technology is paying big water conservation dividends in Bend.” Working together Griffiths admits when he was hired, they city didn’t have a comprehensive list of how many acres they were responsible for. “My mantra is you can’t manage what you can’t measure. I wasn’t going to have enough time or expertise to take on the landscape management task, so the city hired Ric Olson as the large landscape coordinator. Teaming with existing landscape expert Kevin Ramsey, they formed what I call, ‘The Dynamic Duo.’ Ric basically acts as an in-house irrigation efficiency consultant and together with Kevin they have taken their skills and gone through the city site by site to see how the water was being managed. “In addition, Ric works with local landscape experts to spread the word about new priorities and new technologies. A top priority has been to install more efficient irrigation controllers. We found a lot of sites had battery-powered controllers. We couldn’t put new controllers in some places without bringing expensive power drops to the site, so we had to find other solutions.” He gives the example of Mount Washington Drive, which goes around Awbrey Butte, a volcanic cinder cone in town. “We retrofitted those battery-powered controllers with more new efficient controllers that could run off solar panels, which worked out to be cheaper than doing street cuts and bring in power.” The first concern of both Griffiths and The Dynamic Duo was to keep water off the roadway. “Excessive street runoff was a problem because of poorly designed irrigation systems and poorly set or unadjustable irrigation controllers. It was labor intensive to go back and reset those clocks as the weather changed, and the existing battery-powered controllers did not have a cycle-and-soak feature that would have solved the runoff problem. “The second thing we found was many narrow median strips (3 to 6 feet wide) had inefficient spray heads. With so many new roadways being designed and installed as part of our revision of our standards and specifications, we now require the use of drip irrigation, along with tree and plant bubblers that put the water right at the rootzone. All new right-of-way projects use the new specs. Another benefit from targeting for irrigation accuracy has been a reduction in weed growth. This has increased the overall appearance of the median strips and the time needed to remove those weeds. We’re using mulch to minimize weeds and retain water at the rootzones, which has also really helped.” Part of the strategy in the new focus on landscape irrigation management has been safety, whether for city crews, pedestrians or motorists. “We’re placing the water meters, irrigation controls and subsequent valves on the side of the road out of traffic. We’ve also eliminated uses of plant choices that obscure vision or block signs.” Griffiths emphasizes that Bend’s water conservation program evolves around lower water use, increased beauty, runoff elimination, safety and landscaping that is easier to maintain for the long term. “We have a limited amount of dollars to maintain our rights-of-way. The most beneficial part of the whole chain of thinking is that the city’s landscape managers have input when new intersections are being designed. The city’s goal is to get right-of-way landscape installed correctly the first time, with an eye toward the future.” He also credits Mike Miller, assistant public works director, as a pivotal supporter in helping to keep an eye on reducing the long-term costs of bringing irrigation systems inside Bend up-to-date. “We’ve seen an incredible cooperative spirit between the City of Bend and the local landscape contractors. We’re working together to educate the entire loop: the home owners, the business owners, landscapers, landscape designers. Everyone is getting involved. The final result of our educational efforts is they bear fruit on the water use side of the equation.” The long term Griffiths says, “We’re seeing a shift in landscape consideration from one of no thought for water or long-term maintenance to one of a focus on using less water, energy and dollars to maintain landscapes over time. A very good example is in the development community, which uses CC&Rs (code, covenants and restrictions) many of which are requiring lower water use plants, reduced turf areas that are strategically placed. These also are requiring the use of the latest in irrigation of technology capped with a good smart controller. These standards being implemented by developers who are becoming leaders in Green Building exceed what the City of Bend requires.” By working together, with the city doing its best to lead the way, many are helping to make a difference in this Oregon municipality. Lynn Tilton is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to Turf. He resides in Hereford, Ariz. |
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