Turlock home landscapes slurp less water; green parks, university use alternate sources

Brown is the new green.

As Turlock strains to cut water usage by a state-mandated 32 percent from 2013 levels, parks and medians will be leaning toward earth colors. Lawns in shades of beige and sepia-toned landscapes serve as badges of conservation around town.

Early numbers show Turlock more than hit its target in May, with use dropping an estimated 38 percent. That’s good news after April’s 19 percent and a disappointing 2 percent through a warmer than normal March.

“This is the new reality,” said Milt Triewiler, surveying his tawny front landscape. Triewiler has cut his water use by 64 percent since 2013, to an average of 83 gallons a day. His water frugality includes reducing water pressure to his house by twisting the main cutoff valve about two-thirds closed. Only full loads of dishes and clothes chug through their cycles at his house.

Triewiler walks the walk, but also talks the talk, advising a neighbor last week against installing sprinklers – which did not go over all that well, he admitted.

“People are not taking this seriously. They’re living in the past. You have to live in the present,” he said.

Turlock cut home watering to twice a week April 14, trying to curb the demands of lush lawns. But Triewiler waters his small patch of thirsty grass just on Sundays, when he can switch his hose sprinkler through three hourlong cycles by daylight.

Weekend watering is midnight to noon – Saturdays for even-number addresses, and Sunday for odd numbers. Watering on Tuesdays (evens) and Wednesdays (odds) runs from midnight to 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight.

Turlock residents already use far less water than the national average. The average U.S. home uses 320 gallons of water each day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Turlock, however, homes averaged 190 gallons of water per day in spring and summer of 2014, by city figures.

What the state looked at, however, included use by residents of foggy San Francisco and their few, postage-stamp-size gardens, where average use stands at less than half that of Turlock’s, said Garner Reynolds, regulatory affairs manager for the city.

For Turlock residents wishing to do their share, cutting 190 gallons by 32 percent, or 61 gallons, takes:

▪ Fixing one leaky faucet (100 gallons a day)

▪ Spending 24 minutes less under a low-flow shower head (2.5 gallons per minute), 12 minutes less in an old-style shower (5 gpm)

▪ Washing fewer loads of clothes per day (14 to 40 gallons a load, depending on age of washer)

▪ Not watering the lawn, typically one-third of household water use

The city lost use of two wells in northeast Turlock – both used for watering, not drinking – as groundwater levels dropped below 96 feet this spring. The city’s drinking water comes from 20 drinking-water wells dug down to 500 feet, Reynolds said. Turlock has four drinking-water wells offline because levels of contaminants rose too high.

“You tend to have water-quality issues during drought,” he said.

This month’s use begins the official state oversight of water use.

“June’s what counts,” Reynolds said.

The city overall needs to cut residential water use by 71.2 million gallons in June to be 32 percent below what it used in 2013. June, July and August are the highest-use months for the city.

May’s low numbers got some help from lower-than-normal temperatures and sporadic showers. The city’s enforcement of watering limits also ramped up. Turlock has issued 575 warnings and five fines to homeowners for not following the guidelines this year.

If the city can keep its May momentum going, Reynolds said, it can avoid the next phase of mandatory conservation: one-day-a-week landscape watering.

To help trim the total, parks using drinking water follow the same two-days-a-week, limited-hour watering the city asks of its homeowners, Reynolds said. To accommodate the acreage, however, sections of sprinklers water on different days.

Water features at parks are running from 1 to 7 p.m., but those times will be cut back when the Columbia Park pool opens, said Allison Van Guilder, head of Turlock’s Parks, Recreation and Facilities department.

Medians down major streets already look parched, except along eastern sections of Christoffersen Parkway where fake turf looks bright green and perky. Other sections have fresh berms around trees being hand-watered from a tank truck filled with non-potable water.

Recycled water is keeping the Turlock Regional Sports Complex green and soft enough for soccer play, Reynolds said.

A mile southeast of those fields, sports facilities at California State University, Stanislaus, remain vibrant and the campus reflecting pond remains filled. The university has allowed its landscaping to lose some luster, but the property’s self-contained recycling system does not pull from Turlock’s municipal water taps.

“The campus was designed 50 years ago with a system of ponds, pipes and pumps that allow for the storage and transfer of water around campus for irrigation needs. The large Reflecting Pond at the campus’s main entrance not only is a grand focal point, but serves as the primary water-storage area for the irrigation system,” said university spokesman Brian VanderBeek via email.

The system gathers runoff from the campus and perimeter streets, with its own well to replenish the ponds, if needed.

The university aims to cut 25 percent of its municipal water use, using 20 tap-tightening measures devised by Melody Maffei and Tim Overgaauw of the university facilities department. Installing low-flow faucets, low-flow shower heads in the dorms, replacing grass with drought-tolerant plants, and washing state vehicles less frequently are among the changes.

The university’s biggest water draw – its cooling tower – will get an upgrade.

“In its current configuration, water from the municipal supply flows over the pipes to cool the incoming supply for campus use. Within a few months, a new front-end filtration system will allow this cooling task to be performed by water from the irrigation system,” VanderBeek said.

The change will save an estimated 5 million gallons of municipal water a year, with used water flowing back into the campus ponds.

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 3:11 PM with the headline "Turlock home landscapes slurp less water; green parks, university use alternate sources."