City Parks: Water conservation a priority
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Fri, 07/15/2016 - 6:08am
Responding to public concerns that the Carson City Parks and Recreation Department follows a different watering schedule than residents and businesses, Carson City Public Works Director Darren Schulz said conserving water is a priority across the board for the city.
"Carson City Parks and Recreation makes every effort to conserve water throughout our park system," he said.
Schulz said the municipal irrigation system is run by computer, using an Evapo-Transpiration (ET) system which gathers moisture information from a local weather station and then calculatesthe amount of water needed for turf in the area.
"On average this time of year, about a quarter inch (.25) of water loss occurs each day in the plants and soil," he said. "The computer program itself replenishes 80 percent of water loss on a regular basis."
Computerized data also includes information on plant and turf type, soil conditions, and yearly averages of the ET rate, Schulz said.
This data, he said, ensures the plants and turf have enough water to grow, while preventing dryness.
"The system has a flow sensor that monitors the amount of water used on a daily basis," Schulz said. "If any breaks occur, it will automatically shut down the system."
He said the city typically waters during evening and night hours. However, there is also some daytime watering performed as needed to accommodate special events, conduct regularly scheduled irrigation tests, and to make repairs to the irrigation system.
"While it may appear to be traditional watering, park staff may be checking irrigation lines, repairing breaks, adjusting or replacing heads due to vandalism, or any number of routine maintenance tasks," Schulz said. "Some of the City’s larger parks have so many different watering stations, that it can take hours just to get through one entire watering cycle."
For those reasons, he said, the city is permitted to water parks on Mondays on an as-needed basis. That practice, he said, is consistent with other public parks agencies throughout the region.
For more information, or to report park irrigation breaks or leaks, please call the Carson City Parks and Recreation main line at 887-2262.
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