Working Together to Promote Landscape Water Conservation
Colorado’s inherently dry climate coupled with several years of drought have led to increased awareness of the importance of water conservation both indoors and outdoors in recent years.
Colorado’s inherently dry climate coupled with several years of drought have led to increased awareness of the importance of water conservation both indoors and outdoors in recent years.
The City of Dawson Creek hosted a workshop titled “Sustainable Planning and Development for Small Communities”, a program developed by Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation to help small communities. Held in December 2006, the workshop was attended by municipalities from throughout the Peace River region.
Water is a precious thing. Williams Lake is blessed with an abundant source of fresh, clean water that’s relatively easy to extract and distribute. Unfortunately, like any good thing, our water supply is not infinite. During the past two years, the City of Williams Lake has worked hard to determine just how much water there is, and how to best manage it to ensure adequate supplies for future generations.
In last year’s Water Conservation Plan, the City of Williams Lake committed itself to following a three-step program for water conservation.
Most water utility managers don’t classify public outreach as an integral part of utility management. But, that’s an “unfortunate attitude because experience clearly demonstrates the value of devoting public outreach resources on major issues and projects early on instead of after the fact.”
An up-to-date customer information system (CIS) is an essential component of an effective water utility business. These systems are responsible for a wide range of key business activities including billing, managing credit and collections, tracking water consumption, and responding to customers' needs.
The Irrigation Industry Association of British Columbia (IIABC) has created an online Landscape Irrigation Scheduling Calculator to help irrigators develop water-efficient irrigation schedules. By entering basic information about climate, landscape types, soil conditions, crop root depth, and irrigation system type and spacing, irrigators can determine the optimum number of days to water, the irrigation run time for each day, and the maximum run time per cycle.
In 2004, the City of Williams Lake undertook a major review of its water utility and associated management practices. The resulting documents—the “Williams Lake Water Conservation Plan” and the “Waterworks Bylaw”—identify water management and water conservation strategies that will protect and preserve our valuable water resource well into the future.
As noted in the 5th Edition of “Maximum Performance Testing of Popular Toilet Models”, “virtually all toilet models sold in Canada and the U.S. meet both flush volume and performance requirements of the Canadian Standards Association and the American National Standards Institute/American Society of Mechanical Engineers.” However, “there remains some question as to whether models that meet the minimum certification requirements meet the expectations of the consumer.”
The following hints will help both residents and growers assess their watering practices over the last growing season and consider improvements for next year.