The Water Wise Program was initiated in
early 2010 as a joint effort of the
Bentwater Civic Association, the Property
Owners Association and MUD 18 to encourage
Bentwater residents to conserve water. Eight
(8) homeowners were selected as “pilots” to
demonstrate simple, inexpensive ways to save
water. Follow the experiences of the pilots,
and their progress in finding ways to reduce
the water they use, by reading Updates.
The pilot homes are developing a good
picture of how homeowners use water. About
65% of the water we use in Bentwater goes to
irrigate our landscape, and it can be as
high as 80% in the summer months. Aside from
irrigation, all other household water use is
about 35% of the total water we use, or
roughly 4-5,000 gallons each month. You can
view how the pilots have been using water
inside the home (
Pilot Trends
- Household
) and gain some good ideas on reducing the
water you use inside the home by going to
Conservation Tips – Indoors.
Our pilots were given a target of
watering their landscape no more than 1 inch
of water per week and several have achieved
or surpassed that level while maintaining a
healthy landscape. The trends and costs ( in
overuse of water ) of our pilots in their
pursuit of minimizing irrigation are shown
in
Pilot Trends
- Irrigation
It looks like there may be an opportunity to
reduce Bentwater’s annual consumption of
water by as much as 25% if we can simply
stop overwatering our landscape. Go to
Conservation Tips – Outdoors to learn about
some practical ideas on how to
maintain a healthy landscape while at the
same time reducing the irrigation.
Getting to the recommended level of
irrigation is as easy as turning the dial on
your sprinkler controller, but we seem to
struggle to make it happen. The pilot homes
have discovered that the first and most
important step to getting control of their
irrigation is knowing how much water your
sprinklers are delivering. Once you know
this, you can set your sprinkler controller
to deliver 1 inch of water per week, and in
all likelihood begin to see a significant
reduction in your water consumption. You can
use the Irrigation Calculator to determine
how much water you need for your yard and
how to set up your sprinkler system. If you
need help, contact us at
bca@bentwatercivic.com
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