Why Water Matters
Goshdarnit, I just want my sprinklers to work. But pressure seems to change all the time. And we're clearly not conserving this life-giving resource as much as we could. City robocalls and texts for temporary conservation, while well-intended, are easily ignored. We've had some little successes, but we need to up our game significantly. Last fall at a city council meeting I asked the city manager what it would take to leave the pumps on for one week longer in October, and the cost he estimated was astounding, not just for electricity, but for labor from an already weary staff. We need better solutions.
My Opinion
Water Storage Capacity
Water storage, water pumps, and water maintenance are expensive infrastructure. To be able to afford improving the system, we need to carve out investment now. Our children will thank us. I'd like to see us add another pump and storage facility, based on our engineers recommendation, especially in the higher elevations of the city where stored potential energy and gravity can support our pressure rather than costing us extra to pump uphill.
Irrigation Efficiency
I applaud the city's recent investment in metering. Measuring our usage is a key ingredient in refining our strategy. But even before the deeper analysis, it's obvious that sprinklers in the heat of the day evaporate way too much. I'd love to see us irrigate our parks in the wee hours of the morning, when demand and evaporation are still relatively low, and would be willing to find funding to resource this management.
Conservation
In discussing conservation efforts with other Alpiners who care about conservation, we have found at least seven meaningful methods to conserve water without sacrificing our quality of life. These include leading by example with parks and churches, incentivizing individual sprinkler pauses, promoting state incentives for xeriscaping, offering discounts/access to more efficient water systems, subsidizing drought-tolerant trees and shrubs, enforcing restrictions with stiffer fines, and exploring programs for premium service.
