Initially Published 7/22 – LawnandLandscape.com
Alternative water conservation methods like drip irrigation and xeriscaping have long been a way of life in the west, but in California, landscapers are ramping up efforts to keep pace with rapidly changing restrictions.
As all 58 counties in the state are under a drought emergency proclamation, lawmakers are quickly imposing several rules to reduce water usage. For Justin White, it’s reminiscent of the early COVID-19 days, where essential business distinctions and social distancing rules varied from spot to spot.
“Like those laws in 2020, they’re putting the buggy before the horse here because they don’t have a clear enforcement plan,” says White, the CEO at K&D Landscaping.
Of course, there are some obvious tells that someone might be watering more than permitted — if their grass is bright green, it’s a clear indication that they’ve continued to water abundantly. But enforcing watering limitations — and punishment for those who don’t play by the rules — is a little trickier.
“It’s kind of like the pandemic. There’s not really a set guideline yet,” says David Price, the executive director at American Landscape. “Each county has their own interpretation of it at this point, so we’re trying to simplify it for ourselves at this point.”
THE WILD WEST
Navigating the plethora of watering rules is tough because companies that operate in several counties might have different guidelines they must follow. Price says he’s found the statewide laws to be the most restrictive, so while each part of California may interpret those rules differently, he’s trying his best to abide by the statewide viewpoint.
In some parts of Southern California, lawmakers recently determined that individuals may only water their lawns once a week. In other areas of the state, most counties or municipalities are down to just two days a week, but some are restricted in that they can’t water until two days after rain. Some are limited strictly by just how much water they can use in total.
There are also some bans on watering decorative lawn areas in general. “Any lawn that is not where people gather, sports field or a park, has to stop being irrigated for the time being, which is significant,” White says. “We’re talking thousands and thousands and thousands of acres that are now going to go brown. We’ve advocated against this because we feel there are other restrictions that can go into place.”
For Price, he’s seen that some folks who use weather-based controllers are getting more wiggle room in their restrictions. The controllers are managing the water effectively if the technology is working appropriately anyway.
With that in mind, he hopes agencies start funding or roll out rebates to help kickstart widespread weather-based controller adoption.
For a period of time years ago, Price remembers when agencies would cover 80% of projects to do turf reduction, implementing drip irrigation or installing more native plants. The clients or municipalities would cover the remaining 20%. With this financial backing, they were even able to start using more high-density polyethylene piping rather than the more traditional copper piping, which is less prone to leaks.
But all that funding has dried up, so it’s been more difficult to ramp up the water-saving tactics necessary during the drought. And as California goes, so too does the rest of the West.
“California has been very much on the forefront of it,” Price says.
PLAYING BY THE RULES
Part of the strict restrictions are because homeowners, HOAs corporations and , yes, landscapers , weren’t able to abide by the early iterations of restrictions in the first place.