Results tagged “sprinklers”

Here's what a citation from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power looks like. Luckily, if its your first time, there's no monetary punishment, just a conversation with a conservation team member, which could be its own sort of punishment depending on who you are. If they visit you again, you're looking at $100 or more.

"What we've seen has been totally unfair toward landscapers," tells Larry Walsh, assistant executive director of the California State Landscaping Contractors Association, to the Daily News. "We think the idea of two-day limits [Mondays and Thursdays] is wrong. It would be much better to have a water budgeting system, where people are allowed a certain amount of water at a base rate and they decide how to reach it... We are asking that there be an exemption for landscapers and for people living in fire areas. When you have professional landscapers, you use less water. With a two-day limit, people tend to over-water their plants." The LA Department of Water, that is in charge of the program, says the program is under constant review and will make changes when necessary. For now (and maybe for a long time), landscapers will have to adjust to from their usual ways.

You've probably seen this happen: it's raining, yet the sprinklers are working hard in a city park. Not such a smart idea in a drought, or anytime actually. This past week, new sprinkler regulations went into affect (.pdf info sheet), only allowing sprinkling use on Mondays and Thursdays and not between the times of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. For a few years now, there's been a more advanced sprinkler that knows the weather so if it's raining, it knows not to turn on. The Isla Earth podcast from the Catalina Island Conservancy explained in an older episode:

An ordinance in the high desert city of Lancaster went into full effect on March 1st, but today Lancaster officials are reminding residents not to water their lawns between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. “The summer heat is already beaten down upon us," said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris about today's reminder. "It is imperative that we each do our part to conserve water this summer. We must sustain this precious resource in our Valley." Recently, the Antelope Valley has been regularly experiencing temperatures in the high 80s and 90s, which is nothing compared to normal temps during the height of summer. The ordinance, which was adopted last year, stays in effect until October 31st.