AB1881: Impact to the Landscape Industry |
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Tom Ash, Director of Conservation Alliances, HydroPoint September 2006 Legislators in California are debating rules that would dramatically tighten regulations affecting landscape irrigation in the state. In 2004, California passed AB2717, legislation that mandated the state to convene landscape experts, water agencies and environmental groups to rewrite the state's existing landscape irrigation ordinance. The original ordinance, AB325, was written in 1991. Created in the middle of a 6-year drought, AB325 was intended to make sure landscapes were watered efficiently. But it didn't work very well largely because it could not be enforced. Twelve years later, water is even more precious, and the state is revisiting the old ordinance. New technologies have entered the marketplace and we, the landscape industry, have an opportunity to figure out how to make landscapes water-efficient. AB 2717 made 42 recommendations for improving landscape water efficiency, saving water and reducing polluted urban runoff. The recommendations that came out of the AB2717 task force, which included landscape contractors and landscape architects, were then turned over to a legislator who could help champion the recommendations and make them law. Assemblyman John Laird of Monterey County and his staff took on the cause. He reviewed the task force's recommendations: pulling out what he thought wouldn't fly in legislation, and leaving in what he thought feasible. At this writing the bill, now called AB 1881, is sailing through the state legislature and looks likely to become law. The new legislation will grant cities, counties and water agencies until 2010 to establish the ordinance. So what's the bottom line for the landscape industry? The highlights of the new bill are: Landscapes will need to be more water efficient. Landscapes will be required to meet a water budget. That budget is 75% of the local ET (evapotranspiration) rate. An efficiency level of 70 percent will be recommended for irrigation systems. Water runoff will be penalized. Landscape contractors will be required to pass certification tests-mainly in the areas of irrigation and water management. "Certified" smart controllers will be the only irrigation controllers allowed in the state of California for sale and/or installation. |
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