Water Is Life

February 2007
From Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) East Bay Newsline
By Ferol Arce, Cagwin & Dorward

We drink it, bathe in it, grow crops with it and use water to irrigate our landscape. It's so easy to turn on a faucet or an irrigation valve but so much harder to conserve it - water that is.we know how to pay our water bill but how much better would it be if we could save or lower that bill?

Water usage is on the mind of many these days and for good reason. The EPA has calculated that 25% of all water wasted in California is wasted on the landscape. In addition, the Governor recently signed California Bill AB1881 into law. This bill was created from recommendations given by a statewide landscape task force which was created to review landscape water issues.

This new legislation includes:

Restricting the prohibition of low water-usage plants in common interest developments (for us that will mean HOAs can no longer prohibit homeowners from using drought tolerant and native plants)
Adoption of standards for landscape irrigation equipment in the form of weather based (ET) controllers, moisture sensors and/or other water saving irrigation devices by the year 2010
On or after January 1, 2012 the sale of any irrigation controller or moisture sensor for landscape use must meet the adopted standards

You can be proactive and adapt early or remain reactive. For Blake Webber of Sequoia Glen HOA in Novato, CA it all came down to opening his mind wider than his wallet.

Sequoia Glen HOA had been experiencing significant hardscape repair costs due to water damage from excessive irrigation pipe breaks. Overall water costs were a concern as well. Blake Webber, President of the Sequoia Glen HOA Board of Directors and a customer of Cagwin & Dorward Landscape Contractors, expressed his concerns to Irrigation Specialist Clayton Keller who then brought in Water Conservation Manager Debra Lane, also of Cagwin & Dorward.

After performing a landscape water analysis of the property and determining the specific needs of the customer, Debra recommended installing:

3 WeatherTRAK, weather-based ET Controllers from HydroPoint Data Systems of Petaluma, California
Master valves & flow sensors at each point of connection
Data Industrial digital flow monitors in conjunction with the master valves
Red warning lights to indicate a major leak or pipe break

Rather than specifying a more costly centrally managed system in order to provide the necessary flow control and alarm features, Debra worked with a senior engineer from HydroPoint to set up this customized system. The flow sensing equipment would detect and shut down the master valve for any pipe breaks, and the WeatherTRAK controllers would efficiently apply water to the landscape based on weather conditions and plant type. No other modifications to the irrigation system or major renovations to the landscape were made.

Cagwin & Dorward saved the customer money by modifying the installation to meet the customer's needs. In other words, just what they needed and nothing more. As a Cagwin & Dorward Water Management Department test-site for the HydroPoint WeatherTRAK ET Controllers, Debra and her team simply monitored the programming throughout the year.

At the end of a 12-month period Cagwin's Water Management Department analyzed the results:

Water consumption was reduced by 23%
177,470 gallons of water were saved
The Data Industrial flow sensing system successfully detected 2 major pipe breaks
In both instances the master valve shut down correctly and the red warning light went on
Plant health has never looked better, another testament to the benefits of watering based on weather and plant type

HydroPoint reports that public agency studies conclude that savings from the WeatherTRAK controller deliver between 20 - 45% reduction in irrigation gallons but the excitement for Cagwin & Dorward's water management team was seeing actual, real life savings for the HOA and actual, real life smiles from the their customer.

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