A Summer Must, Only Water After Dusk!

Please water in the morning or at night!

Due to a very dry winter and drought conditions in the Sierra Nevada and Colorado River Basin (two main sources of our water), EVMWD is requesting that residents NOT water during daylight hours. Early morning is the best time to water as there is little wind and not much evaporation.

Daytime watering wastes water and costs you money as it blows away or evaporates!

ATTENTION! Time for a schedule check!

Now that the heat has started it is time to look at your watering schedule. If you have pop-up spray heads on your lawn, you should be able to water four times a week for 15 minutes or around 60 minutes total per week for now. If it gets really hot, you can add a day or two. You really DO NOT need to water every day, even in July and August.

If you see runoff, then you should split up your run times (i.e. 7 minutes at 5 am and 7 at 6am)

Want to save time, money and water? Plant California Friendly Plants!

You have probably noticed that your lawn uses a lot of water. You have probably thought that it would be nice to have plants that are beautiful and don't require much water or maintenance. California Friendly Plants are just the thing! These are beautiful, drought tolerant, and low maintenance plants that will make your yard look good and help lower your water bill. Several local nurseries, including Home Depot and Lowes now carry these plants so it is easier than ever to buy them. Check out bewaterwise.com for an extensive list (and pictures!) of these plants. Look for the banners, displays, and plant tags!

Water Saving Tips
How much water do I use?
By conserving how much water do I save?
Rebates Available
Water saving websites
4 Steps to a Green Healthy Lawn

Saving Water Outdoors: How Much is Enough for Your Lawn?
Landscape irrigation can be more than 50% of your annual water use. Maintaining a lush and beautiful yard in our hot dry climate requires water and will cost you money. In addition, most irrigation systems are inefficient, not maintained properly, and most homeowners tend to overwater by as much as 30%. Fortunately, there are some easy ways to reduce your landscape water use. The following are some suggestions that can help you save water in your yard. Please note: these are meant to be guidelines and are based on common residential landscape conditions. You might need to adjust schedules and watering times due to soil or local conditions.
The Quick Fix! This might just be the easiest thing you can do to save water and money! We recommend the following watering schedule for summer watering of lawns in our service area: 4 times a week 15 minutes a day After the sun goes down This basic schedule works for most lawns watered by pop-up spray heads. When a heat wave hits you will probably want to add another day or two into the schedule, but this should work for most of the year. You will, of course, want to subtract a day or two in the fall as temperatures cool off. This schedule will help promote root growth in your lawn. If you water every day, the water stays near the surface and good strong roots don't get established. Note: If you see runoff, you will need to break up your one watering time into two or more. See Problem 1 below.
1) The Problem: Money runoff One of the easier ways to conserve water is to check for water running off your lawn and into the street. If you have water hitting the sidewalk, the street, and passing cars, you might as well stand outside and throw dollar bills into the street! You paid for that water and you're not getting anything from it and it certainly isn't helping your lawn.
The Solution: Change your watering times This problem is very easy to fix. The most likely reasons for the runoff are poorly adjusted sprinklers or that you are watering too long and/or have clay in your soil that doesn't allow water to penetrate. You can easily adjust your sprinkler heads so the water falls only on the lawn and not on the sidewalk. If the sprinklers are adjusted and you still have runoff, you should break up your watering times into shorter cycles with down time in between. For example: If you are watering every other day for 15 minutes (and you should be!) at 7 am and are seeing runoff, break it up into 7 minutes at 6 am and 8 minutes at 7am. You could also water once in the evening and then again in the morning. Either way you will stop wasting water and money!
2) The Problem: Broken or Leaky Sprinklers Are you wondering why your water bill jumped without you changing anything? You might have a leak or a broken sprinkler head. Unfortunately, it's not always as simple as water shooting up out of the pipe.
The Solution: Check for Leaks and Regular Maintenance You can use your water meter to check for slow or underground leaks. Every meter has a spinning triangle called a tattletale that spins when water is moving through the meter. If you turn off the water in your home and yard and the tattletale is still spinning then you might have a leak. Many sprinkler parts are made of plastic and sometimes they just don't last very long. Often a sprinkler will still work but there might be a crack in the riser or the pop-up that leaks water. Usually you can see this as there will be runoff onto the street or a continuously wet spot in your lawn. Fortunately, replacing the broken or cracked piece should fix the problem. If you water early in the morning it can be easy to miss problems with your system. You should run it manually every once in a while and make any necessary adjustments.
3) The Problem: Brown Spots in Your Lawn! Your dream of a nice green lawn is shattered by these darn brown spots that look awful!
3) One Solution: Adjust Your Sprinklers! Brown spots are often a result of poor sprinkler coverage, particulary if the spots are near sprinkler heads. Irrigation systems are usually designed so that the water drops thrown farthest by one head land right at the next head, this is called head to head coverage. If you don't have it then you can get brown spots. All you need to do is adjust the sprinkler's range to reach the next head. On most pop-up spray heads this is done by turning a small screw in the middle of the head. If you have to replace a head, be sure to get one with the same range as your other ones. If adjusting the heads doesn't work then the spots might be caused by something else such as: dog urine, mowing too closely, dull mower blades, insects, or different sprinkler heads on the same valve. You might want to consult a lawn care professional.

Different Sprinkler Heads Perform Differently

Pop-up spray heads are a very common way to water a lawn. Water pressure causes the head to "pop-up" and then retract when the water goes off. This allows the heads to stay out of the way when you are mowing. Most pop-up systems have a plastic body with a riser that slides up and down and a sprinkler nozzle that screws on to the top. This allows you to change out the nozzles if necessary. The nozzles produce a fan spray that can be adjusted to various angles.

On average, pop-up spray heads put out about 1.5 inches of water per hour and are about 50% efficient. Some problems with spray heads are that they don't do well in the wind and higher pressures can cause misting.

A basic lawn watering schedule with pop-ups would be 4 times a week/15 minutes a day/after the sun goes down.

This works out to about 60 minutes a week or about 1 inch of water.

Gear rotors are another common type of sprinkler. These send out a single stream of water and slowly rotate over the lawn. These sprinklers average about .5 inches of water per hour and thus require a longer watering time. Gear rotors are about 65% efficient and are commonly used in large turf areas because they can throw water long distances.

In order to put down 1 inch of water with gear rotors you need to run them for about 40 minutes every other day. This amount of time will probably cause some runoff so you should break it up at different times.

MP Rotators are multi-stream rotors that use water pressure to rotate across your lawn. These sprinklers average about .5 inches of water per hour and are about 80% efficient. The individual streams of water hold up well in the wind and the efficiency can save you water. MP Rotators are still fairly new on the market but are becoming popular for slopes and lawns because they can significantly reduce runoff. They are more expensive than regular sprinkler heads but EVMWD now offers a rebate.

A basic schedule with MP Rotators would be 35 minutes a day, every other day. They are more efficient than the gear rotors.

The MP rotator is a good choice for homeowners because they easily screw into your existing pop-up spray bodies and allow you to get good water savings and reduce runoff at a reasonable price.

You can buy MP Rotators at:

Ewing Irrigation 27562 Commerce Center Dr. Temecula, CA 92590 Phone: (951) 506-9530

Check our rebate page for information on how to save money on MP Rotators

What is ET?

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the fancy way of describing the amount of water used by a plant and then evaporated into the air. ET is measured at local weather stations and can useful in determining how much you should water throughout the year.

ET is measured in inches of water and can be broken down by day, month, or year. The ET for a Tall Fescue lawn (the highest water user) in the EVMWD service area is about 55 inches a year with the highest requirements occurring in the summer months. The highest amount in the summer is referenced as 100% of ET while the lower amounts for the rest of year are expressed as lower percentages. By using these percentages you can adjust your watering times and get just the right amount of water to your plants.

The Metropolitan Water District has a Watering Index on their website that you can use www.bewaterwise.com

"Smart Timers"

There are a variety of new "smart" irrigation controllers that use ET to adjust your watering times so you don't have to! These controllers are particularly useful when the weather changes as they will adjust to changes in temperatures and make sure your plants get just the right amount of water. This technology is still fairly new and hasn't reached Home Depot or Lowes, but you can get them at the following local irrigation supply stores.

Temecula Valley Pipe and Supply at 28074 Del Rio Rd, Temecula (951) 676-5678

Ewing Irrigation 27562 Commerce Center Dr. Temecula, CA 92590 Phone: (951) 506-9530

EVMWD offers a $80 rebate for the purchase of a "smart" timer (also called a Weather Based Irrigation Controller).

Click here for a list of "smart controllers"

Saving Water Indoors: Lots of Ways to Save!

Because we live in a semi-arid region, we need to use every drop of water wisely. If you check for and repair water leaks, economize, install water-saving devices and reuse water when possible, you will see considerable savings in your water bill.

Bathroom Up to 25% of home inside water use is in the bathroom. You can follow these easy steps to save water: Install High Efficiency Toilets(1.28 gallons per flush) if your home was built before 1994 Repair toilet leaks, they can waste up to 60 gallons of water per day Install showerheads that use only 2.5 gallons per minute or less
Laundry Clothes washers can use up to 25% of the water used inside the home. To save water: Purchase a High Efficiency Clothes Washer. The new front loading machines are easy to use and they are guaranteed to save you water and money! By eliminating the agitator, front loading machines use 40% less water and probably an equivalent amount of energy. Based on reports from EVMWD customers who have purchased these machines, they can save you anywhere from $10-$20 per month on your water and energy bills. They cost a little more up front (less $125 for our rebate!) but they are worth it! Always wash full loads of clothes Use shorter cycles when possible If you have a wash sink in your laundry area, install aerators and do not leave the water running
Kitchen Kitchen faucets can use the most significant amount of water. To save water in the kitchen, you can follow these easy steps: Use faucet aerators Do not leave the water running while you clean dishes Fix faucet leaks right away; a leaky faucet can waste up to 15 gallons of water per day Use the short cycle on your dishwasher Only wash full loads of dishes
Landscape Landscapes typically represent the largest portion of residential water use. You can significantly reduce water use by doing the following: Replace thirsty lawn with California Friendly plant material and install drip irrigation Attend free landscape classes each Spring and Fall at EVMWD If water is running onto the sidewalk or over the curb, you need to shorten watering cycles Always water early morning to avoid evaporation loss and windy conditions

Water saving websites
www.h2ouse.org	Virtual tour of a home with information on leak repair, installation of water efficient fixtures and helpful links
www.wmwd.com/landscape.htm	Landscapes Southern California Style, 1-acre native plant garden with design tips
www.bewaterwise.com	Find retailers who sell native plants and learn how to program your irrigation controller
www.wmwd.com/landscape.htm	Landscape Southern California Style
How much water do I use?
Task	Use in Gallons
Shower, regular shower head – 5 min.	11
Bath, full tub	24
Toliet Flush, regular tank	3-5
Shaving, open tap – 10 min.	13
Brush Teeth, open tap – 10 min.	13
Dishwasher, standard cycle	10-15
Manual dishwashing, open tap – 15 min.	20
Dishwashing, full basin	5
Washing the car, open hose	100+
TOTAL GALLONS/DAY	199 – 206
TOTAL GALLONS/YEAR	72,635 – 75,190
By Conserving how much water do I save?
Task	Use in Gallons
Shower, regular shower head – 5 min.	10
Bath, half tub	12
Toliet Flush, ultra low flow tank	1.6
Shaving, full basin	1
Brush Teeth, fill cup	<1
Dishwasher, short cycle	8-13
Washing the car, bucket and hose with shutoff nozzle	<50
TOTAL GALLONS/DAY	58.1 - 88.6
TOTAL GALLONS/YEAR	21,206 – 32,339