Welcome to H20 Weekly

Welcome to H2O Weekly

Issue # 001

H2O Weekly is an on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities about the world’s water on a weekly basis. A full article is followed by other brief headings are followed by links that will take you to the complete article you are interested in.

Created & Published by Lorne Haveruk C.I.D., C.I.C., C.L.I.A

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Weekly Water Events

1. Irrigation on a Shoestring (full article)

2. FY 2007 Budget Emphasizes Security and Sustainability
3. Recycle the rinse water
4. Water in the City conference
5. WWF Says Europe Needs Water Conservation Now

6. Rates, pricing and public education

H2O Weekly is sent only to those who have requested it. We value your privacy and never share our mailing list with anyone. To subscribe and unsubscribe contact us and add subscribe or unsubscribe in the subject line.

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1. Irrigation on a Shoestring by Debra Sass

Next drought, we won't have to rely on spray paint to keep our lawns green. Or sacrifice long-loved flower gardens to stay within a water budget. Warming up to gravel groundcover instead of daisies won't be necessary, either.

At least, that's the hope of researchers at the University of California at Riverside studying irrigation and fertilizing techniques for different types of plant materials. Their goal is to provide practical guidelines for establishing mixed-plant landscapes and keeping lawns green with a minimum of water in our typically dry Southern California climate.

Since July 1993, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has contributed $400,000 for scientists to, literally, watch the grass grow. And, of course, to tell us all how to have a healthy and pretty landscape that uses water as efficiently as possible and shows off the Southern California flair for creativity with landscape design that extends beyond sprawling lush lawns.

This information is vital to Southern California. One drop of water in every four delivered by Metropolitan to six counties spanning Ventura to the Mexican border is sent outdoors for irrigation.

According to Robert Green, turfgrass research agronomist with the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, there are many benefits to keeping Southern California green. To a scientist, these benefits can be categorized as functional, recreational and aesthetic. For others, a green and open environment helps to balance urban pollution and give us nice places to play and daydream.

Functional benefits include dust control, flood control, enhanced wildlife habitat, cooling shade, along with reduced noise, glare and visual pollution problems. The recreational benefits are easier to see—grass is relatively low-cost and well suited to outdoor sports and leisure activities.

As to the aesthetic benefits, they include, "enhanced beauty and attractiveness, a positive therapeutic impact, improved work productivity, and an overall better quality-of-life in densely populated urban areas," Green said. He added that the turfgrass and landscape industry impacts the Southland economy and tourist business. After all, a lot here is based on appearance.

But there's more to Southern California's pretty face. We acknowledge the price for pretty.

"At the same time," Green said, "there is a need to become more efficient with landscape irrigation and develop methods and practices for utilizing lower amounts of irrigation water while maintaining landscape benefits."

At the water conservation field facility in Riverside researchers measure how irrigation cycles and plant partnering affect the well being of different species of trees, grasses and groundcovers.

One of the studies, just recently concluded and not yet analyzed, uses a grid-like configuration of 12 "irrigation cells" to see how varying amounts of water affect a lawn of tall fescue turf. For some cells, watering rates are adjusted weekly based on the prior week's evapotranspiration rate (the speed with which water leaves the soil, through evaporation, and the plant in a certain climate condition). Even with this type of irrigation, this treatment and all others were not successful in achieving a 6.0 on a scale of 9 (with 1 being worst, 5 minimally acceptable and 9 best) during all four quarters of testing.

One variable in the irrigation testing was the use of "water banking." Under this scenario, each cell received a fixed amount of irrigation water, but it was not evenly distributed over the course of the year. More water was used in the summer months, and less in the first quarter of the year. Even under those conditions, the results were the same. The grass grew greener and better from January to June than it did the rest of the year.

What do these results mean? At first glance, the study suggests that an inland valley landscape may not be able to maintain a healthy looking, stress-free lawn year-round when the landscape is 100 percent turfgrass as it was for this round of testing. Also, slow-release nitrogen fertilizers appear to be more effective than fast-release products. Although they are more expensive, the long-term water savings will pay for the more expensive fertilizer product, Green said.

Green's next study will try to answer the question of how much turf can be planted in a landscape and still maintain a healthy appearance (since the previous study suggests 100 percent turf landscaping can't work in very hot climates.) "This information will influence how landscape design is composed," he predicted.

Environmental Horticulturist Dennis Pittenger has been interested in trees for years. Since 1994, he has overseen a UC Riverside study to find species of trees that work well in inland valley areas, given a 40-foot height limit. Tree performance is evaluated with different irrigation amounts. He's narrowed down his study to 24 trees, including the Southern Magnolia, the Australian flame tree and the strawberry tree, and expects results by this summer.

"We have to recognize that water use in the landscape will be a considerable issue in the future," Pittenger said. "If we can get by on less, it's something to shoot for."

Pittenger is also interested in how well different plants perform as neighbors. He's been collecting data since 1996 on the performance of different combinations of grass, groundcover and ornamental pear trees. All possible combinations of these three, as well as individual plantings, have been watered in regimes considered optimum or minimal for turf grass.

At issue is whether growth rate is affected by different plant combinations, and what differences might occur with varying water regimes. This study will guide landscape planners on their choice of plant materials to combine with turf grass.

"Even Diamond Valley Lake (Metropolitan's 260 billion-gallon reservoir) can't provide a water supply that lasts forever," Pittenger said. "We need to learn how to irrigate in a responsible manner."

For more details about these studies, including the treatment and management protocols, or to receive the final research reports when they become available, please contact Dennis Pittenger at triscat@pop.ucr.edu and/or Robert Green at robert.green@ucr.edu

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2. FY 2007 Budget Emphasizes Security and Sustainability

The President's budget request emphasizes security and sustainability, and reflects the need for maintaining economic competitiveness while accelerating environmental protection. The agency's commitment to the four pillars of sustainable infrastructure -- Better Management, Water Efficiency, Full Cost Pricing and the Watershed Approach …

S FY 2007 Budget Proposal Emphasizes Security and Sustainability

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3. Recycle the Rinse Water

One of our biggest problems in the summer is maintaining our trees and landscaping when it's not raining. Saving washing machine rinse water is the answer. Saving rinse water that is…

S Recycle the rinse water!

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4. WATER IN THE CITY CONFERENCE
SEPTEMBER 17-20, 2006
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

A Unique Conference...

Water in the City is a unique conference that will bring together the people who make decisions about water. Not just engineers and water managers, but also municipal politicians and staff, senior governments, the development industry, consultants, the environmental community, interested citizens, youth, and commercial and institutional water users from all over North America. We are bringing people together to take a broad, visionary look at water issues facing our communities and to …

S http://www.waterinthecityvictoria.ca/

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5. WWF Says Europe Needs Water Conservation Now

Dry land emerges from the shallow waters of the Po river, under the Ponte della Becca, near Pavia, Italy (June 2005)

As Europe swelters in its latest summer heat wave, the World Wildlife Fund is warning that building more reservoirs and water storage dams will not solve the continent's water shortage. The global conservation…

S http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-07/2005-07-20-voa23.cfm?CFID=31558685&CFTOKEN=30113876
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6. Rates, pricing and public education

About 55 percent of Canadians served municipal water pay in ways that do not promote conservation. A 2001 study of rate structures by Environment Canada showed that in 1999, 43 percent of the population was under…

S http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/en/manage/effic/e_rates.htm

H2O Weekly is sent only to those who have requested it. We value your privacy and never share our mailing list with anyone. To subscribe and unsubscribe contact us and add subscribe or unsubscribe in the subject line.

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Thanks for reading!

Lorne Haveruk C.I.D., C.I.C., C.L.I.A
Editors, H20 News
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