More than 600 people attended a June 6 webinar co-hosted by the Irrigation Association, Fairfax, Virginia; the California Landscape Contractors Association, Sacramento, California; and the National Association of Landscape Professionals, Fairfax, Virginia; which broke down California’s new water restrictions enacted to combat the state’s ongoing drought.
The virtual event featured panelists Maureen Erbeznik, principal at Maureen Erbeznik and Associates, Los Angeles, and Peter Estournes, CWM, CLP, CLIA, vice president and principal of Gardenworks Inc., Healdsburg, California. Warren Gorowitz, CLIA, director of corporate social responsibility, Hunter Industries, San Marcos, California, served as the webinar’s moderator.
Erbeznik highlighted the dire position California is in following extended, record-breaking drought and aridification. The state receives much of its water from snowpack, but as temperatures continue to increase, the water is absorbing into the soil and evaporating at a higher rate. Couple this dryness with increased water use statewide, and California adds more pressure on its already low — and in Southern California, emergency-level — water supply.
And when a good portion of California’s urban water is used for landscape irrigation, Erbeznik says it makes sense that the state “is taking dramatic measures to reduce that use, specifically in the commercial market.”
“These really are unprecedented times,” Erbeznik says. “… I’ve been in the industry over 30 years and never seen this dire of a situation. It’s not likely to change anytime soon.”
All California residents are being asked to voluntarily cut water use by 15% and are banned from watering nonfunctional turf in commercial, industrial and institutional properties for one year, as of June 6. This watering ban does not impact single family homes. Exemptions to this ban include watering trees or turf grasses with a plant factor of 0.3 or less, if non-potable water is used and if watering is required for health and safety reasons.
Each water retailer is required to implement all water saving measures and restrictions under stage two of their water shortage contingency plan, which is a 10% to 20% reduction, Erbeznik says. She explains that this means most water agencies will prohibit any water waste, including irrigation runoff, and will have day-of-week watering restrictions from one to three days per week.
California’s more than 400 water agencies are responsible for enforcing these water restrictions in their designated areas, and restrictions vary by each retailer.
For example, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has imposed one of two options for its agencies that receive water from the California State Project in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties: move to one-day-a-week watering or reduce their state water purchases. In Sacramento, residents are allowed to water two days a week with exceptions for newly installed landscapes and tree irrigation; smart controllers can water any day no more than two times per week and drip or hand watering can be done at any time.
“We don’t have a one-size-fits-all for the whole state of California because of the different water situations going on throughout the state,” Gorowitz says. “It’s kind of a mixed thing because it also makes it so much more complicated as well.”
For California irrigation professionals, Estournes’ advice is to look into water budgeting for their landscape company before completely changing irrigation systems or pieces in order to meet the restrictions. He urges landscape companies compile a landscape’s water needs as decided by the weather, the plant types in the landscape and the area of landscape. Landscapers should keep a close eye on landscapes’ meters and can use software to record data. After using a water budget for two to three weeks, Estournes says that is when irrigation issues can be analyzed and solved.
“You cannot manage what you do not measure, and water budgeting is the approach to cut back our water use in California without a lot of harm and bad feelings,” Estournes says.
For irrigation professionals and residents to stay on top of the different restrictions, Erbeznik told attendees to discover their property’s water provider and then visit their website. She also encourages Californians to look into any local incentives their water agency has available, such as incentives for smart controllers or high efficiency nozzles.
“Talk to your clients so that they know you’re on it, that you’re managing their property, so that they don’t receive violation notices or fines,” Erbeznik says. “Explain what you’re doing to comply with all the restrictions.”
Read about a follow-up webinar Gorowitz, Estournes and Erbeznik did on June 21 where they covered additional questions not addressed in the original June 6 webinar.
Watch the full webinar on the Irrigation Association’s YouTube channel at youtu.be/YkgiBOf7-lo.
McKenna Corson is the digital content editor for Irrigation & Lighting and can be reached here.
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