Cut Water Use or Pay Penalty Charge

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Contra Costa Water District which serves water to approximately 550,000 people in central and eastern Contra Costa County in Northern California, is starting a Drought Management Program to encourage water conservation.

Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) Blog announced the CCWD's 15% Drought Management Program on April 1st. The program will be in effect as of May 1st, 2009.

KCBS Radio reported that "Residents who use less than a thousand gallons a day, which is about 90 percent of district customers, will only face a higher rate if their water usage increases. But those who already use more than a thousand gallons a day will face the new drought rate of 300 percent if they don't cutback."

You can click here for information and tools that can help cut water use.

Sources:
1. KCBS Radio report on New Water Regulations in Contra Costa
2. San Francisco Chronicle article on Contra Costa Water Officials Move to Cut Water Use
3. NBC article on Another County Hit With Water Restrictions
4. Mercury News article on Contra Costa Water District customers must conserve or pay more

3 Proven tips that save landscape water - Tip 1

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Tip 1. Prevent Run-Off!

This is the final posting of a series of 4 posts about saving landscape water. We started from the bottom of the list and worked our way up. Here is tip #1.

Obviously, run-off is wasteful. Water that doesn't reach the root depth of the soil does your plants no good. Run-off robs the soil of nutrients and causes pollution by carrying chemicals to the storm drains.

Run-off occurs when you put more water on the soil than it can absorb. The soil type and slope play a major factor here. Water runs off quicker on clay soil and steeper slopes. Since the amount of water your sprinkler system puts down on your landscape in a minute is fixed, the only thing you can do to prevent run off, in short of changing your sprinklers, is to break the watering cycles into shorter time windows.

You can find a list of tools that can help adjust your watering schedules to prevent run-off. Please subscribe to our blog to be notified when we post the rest of the "3 Proven tips that save landscape water" series.


To sum it all up, make sure you adjust your watering schedules based on changing seasons, soil type, plant type, slope, sprinkler type and most importantly your location.

Tools that can help:

AuditorSoft: offers tools that professional landscapers, irrigation experts, HOA, apartment and other facility managers utilize to save landscape water. You can click here to read more about the solution details at AuditorSoft reseller GreenLeaf.com's web site.

Irrigation Water Management Society: is a non-profit organization committed to promoting the wise and efficient use of water. You can click here to use their online landscape irrigation budget calculators.

3 Proven tips that save landscape water - Tip 2

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Tip 2. Water to Depth!

When watering landscaping you need to think of getting the water to the roots of your plants. The soil serves as a "reservoir that holds water for your plants". For a healthy landscape you need to get the right amount of water to the root depth, not just to the surface of the soil.

This is obviously tricky. Water for too short of a time and the water will not reach the root depth. Water for too long and the water will simply run off the surface.

You can find a list of tools that can help adjust your watering schedules to water to depth. Please subscribe to our blog to be notified when we post the rest of the "3 Proven tips that save landscape water" series.

3 Proven tips that save landscape water - Tip 3

3 Proven tips that save landscape water

Note: This blog series will be rolled out as 4 separate posts.

Tip 3. Adjust to Seasons!
This is the first posting of a series of 4 posts about saving landscape water. We will start from the bottom of the list and work our way up. In the last posting of this series we will sum up the 3 tips and offer tools that can help in your project to save landscape water.

"The right amount of water" for your landscape is a moving target. Seasonal changes in temperature, humidity, wind, solar radiation, even the length of the daytime play a role in how much water your plants need to be healthy.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), located in San Francisco Bay Area sums up this requirement as:
"Your garden does not need as much water in April as it does in July. Add days to your watering schedule for the summer season and then reduce the number of days as fall approaches."

Calculating the amount of water your landscape needs can be a daunting task, especially if you have a lot of variety in your landscape. Slope, soil type, sun exposure as well as plant types play a major role in how much irrigation water you'll need to use.

Over and under watering can both be costly. So we will provide a list of tools that can help you adjust your watering schedules based on changing seasons. Please subscribe to our blog to be notified when we post the rest of the "3 Proven tips that save landscape water" series.