Florida District Shows Homeowners How to Reduce Water Usage

If your sprinkler spends as much time watering the wall as watering your plants, it might be time to call in Broward's new Mobile Irrigation Lab.

The lab, operated by the Broward Soil and Water Conservation District, offers residents a chance to conserve water and save on their water bills -- for free.

Residents can call the conservation district to have lab workers come out and evaluate their outdoor water usage. The workers check pressure, flow and amount of water used before making suggestions about how to make the irrigation system more efficient.

''It's kind of a fun program,'' said Kathy Preston, an assistant administrator with the conservation district, ``because you're able to make a big difference with these minor, little changes.''

Just by doing something as simple as changing a sprinkler head, home gardeners can save thousands of gallons of water a year, Preston said. Also, many residents water for too long and too often, especially during the dry season, when they think their plants are not getting enough water.

In the Pines

Since starting the lab late in the fall, the conservation district has done more than 25 evaluations, including one for Barbara Gless of Pembroke Pines.

Gless is part of a committee that wanted to redo the entranceway to its gated community, The Estates of Tanglewood Lakes. But no landscaper would work on the entrance until the community had the irrigation system replaced.

After a visit from the mobile lab, Gless had a series of recommendations. The prescription: Use a drip system, which uses less water than a traditional sprinkler system.

The lab ''would save us hundreds of thousands of gallons a year if people were aware of it,'' Gless said.

Set that Timer

Sixteen other counties, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, have similar programs. Some, like Broward's, focus on lawn and garden care, while others also evaluate water usage on farms.

In Miami-Dade, where the lab opened in 1992, workers evaluate about 110 urban and rural irrigation systems every year, said Michelle Codallo, a lab project member.

People often waste water by setting their sprinkler's timer incorrectly, Codallo said. When workers show homeowners how to use less water, they tend to be pretty excited.

''They like to hear that the changes they make are money-saving,'' she said.

Joint Effort

Some in Broward had wanted a mobile lab for years, but the money wasn't there, said Russell M. Setti, the conservation district's administrator. Now, a partnership among the conservation district, the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made it a reality.

The labs are important because there is a limited supply of fresh, usable water in South Florida, Setti said. As the population here booms, the need for conservation increases.,

''We have billions of human beings,'' Setti said, ``but we haven't got one more drop of water since the day of the beginning.''

Story courtesy of the Miami Herald.