A Public Service Announcement For Those Who Water The Road...

This is my PSA for all of you out there who waste water with your lawn sprinklers! Either you have no idea they need adjusting, you don't know how, or maybe you just don't care? Whatever the reason may be, as a homeowner or building owner it may be worth your while to learn how to take care of your lawn irrigation system or possibly hire someone to do it for you.

I know there is information all over the place regarding taking care of your lawn irrigation system. I see information from water districts, pamphlets at hardware stores, television campaigns, and even signs on buses going down the street... what will it take for people to take notice of their water wasting ways? I implore you to take a look at your water bill... what does it show? Would you like it to be lower? How about going "green" without spending tons of money ripping out your lawn or installing expensive irrigation equipment?

Well, this is my list of common problems I see on a continuous basis and how you can correct them and save some money and conserve water:

• Please don't water you lawn or planting beds in the middle of the day... you lose tons of water to evaporation and if the temperature is hot you run the risk of scalding your plants or lawn. Every water district has a watering time frame they tell their customers... watering in the early morning from 1AM to 5AM is a great time frame to run sprinklers.

• There is no need to run your sprinklers every single day, especially in wet seasons! It's funny, even in the summer months I water my lawn 2 to 3 times a week and my lawn is just as green as the folks next to me who run their sprinklers every single day... they even run their sprinklers in the rainy season! With proper maintenance and spray measurements you can easily maximize your watering and eliminate the need for constant and over-watering.

• Please take notice that your sprinklers are watering the road or your neighbor's house! There are different sprinkler heads for different uses and they can easily be adjusted with a screw driver if they're standard spray heads or adjusted by hand if you have impact rotor sprinklers. All sprinkler heads state the pattern of spray and how far the spray can travel. If you have a 3' section of lawn, please don't install a sprinkler that sprays 10' in a full circle pattern! If you match the right sprinkler with the right size area to be watered you will save water, head aches, and lots of money in the long run.

• If you have a broken sprinkler head... replace it. Whether it's you or the gardener down the street, someone needs to replace the broken sprinklers in your yard. Maybe you don't notice because your sprinklers run at night, but you will notice when you look at your water bill a little closer. A broken lawn sprinkler head can waste gallons of water and hurt you lawn and plants by either over watering or under watering depending on which way the wasted water is flowing. If the broken sprinkler is close to you home or garage you may develop foundation problems over time if all that wasted water is soaking into the ground where a building's foundation is located. The choice is yours... spend a couple dollars to fix a sprinkler or suffer the consequences down the road in a more costly situation.

If you pay attention to your lawn irrigation system you can really do your part to conserve water, help the environment, and also put a little "green" back in your pocket at the same time. You don't have to go out and put in a drought tolerant garden or permeable paving... you just need to be a little more consciences and take care of what you all ready have. Too many homeowners and business owners are out there right now wasting water and money just because they're lazy or they just don't care. It's up to you to do your part... now go outside and do some "public service" and make sure your lawn sprinklers are watering your lawn... not the road!

Brick In The Tank???

How many people remember the old brick in the toilet tank trick for saving water? It was a clever trick during those water shortages and droughts of the past, but never truly a great fix for those water wasting toilets. I always wondered if people considered the downside of putting a brick in a tank of water... how about the clay residue clogging pipes and the flushing mechanism? Many other ideas came throughout the years after the "brick trick"... bottles full of sand, metal such as bolts and screws, and bottles full of water.

There were all kinds of novel ideas, but many failed due to trapped air, evaporation, or too much movement causing conflict with the toilet's mechanics. Even more prevalent was the fact that a small bottle of water only displaced a small amount of water compared to the gallons flushed of all the toilets before the standard 1.6 GPF, (gallons per flush).

New low-flow and dual flush toilets have now entered the picture and become the standard for green building enthusiasts, but what about those who have a perfectly good toilet and don't want to spend or waste the money for a new toilet? How about a water displacement bag designed for toilet tanks or a conversion kit that converts your standard toilet to a dual flush toilet?

There are a lot of great products on the market these days to help folks who have water hogs for toilets. It's very important to focus on toilets when it comes to water conservation; a large amount of your home's water usage is due to flushing toilets. Current plumbing code standards call for a minimum of 1.6 GPF, but I know there are still a large number of toilets out there that are flushing at a rate of 3.75 GPF and higher... which means it's time to take action, and figure out what you can do to fix the problem and save yourself some money.

In the Sacramento Valley you can find water displacement bags and dual flush conversion kits at some large hardware stores and limited small hardware stores. The best source is to order from the internet from Amazon.com and their associates or from conservation sites like the following:

New Resources Group

http://www.nrgideas.com/ 

its easy being green

http://www.itseasybeinggreen.com/

It's also a good idea to check with your local water provider to see if they offer any incentives or free products!