Question for City Operations regarding water use

Question for City of Rossland Operations, can you please shut the sprinklers off for the parks and ball feilds?  We're coming out of one of our dryest springs into the hottest summer we've ever had, the province is on fire, we're under stage 2 water restrictions, obvisouly heading towards stage 3, and the city is squandering water on growing grass.  Why?  Grass is very hardy, it dies off just to grow again the next year.  Is it that imporant to keep the fields green for baseball and soccer?  I really don't think it makes a difference.  Given the apocolyptic weather we're having it seems like an irresponsible waste of water.  We may need that water at some point to save our homes.  And please don't use the excuse that it's all automated and it can't be shut off, the sprinklers get shut off every winter, it can most certainly be done sooner.  Please stop wasting a valuable resource.  Thank you.

On the sprinkler controllers there's an "off" position. Turn the dial here, and PRESTO it's off, and now that we're in a Provincial State of Emergency for at least the next 2 weeks due to fires, please save the water. 

Or.... we keep the grass growing and lush so that it can't burn so easily?

that would be the other side of the coin.

When we did sprinkler sytems for parks, soccer fields etc, usually each sprinkler head put out between 8-10 gallons per minute, so lets just say each head puts out 9. Of course it depends on the water flow for each park, but this is just a ballpark figure. Lets say on average each section of heads (zones) runs for 20 minutes. Thats 180 gallons per head. Usually, but not always, there's more than 1 sprinkler head per zone, let's say 3 heads per zone, so now it's up to 540 gallons for a 20 minute run. Thats a lot of water. I'm not positive what our parks water flow is, but this is just an average from the ones we've done in the past.  Residential homes are different obviously, usually 5 heads on each zone, each one putting out 2 gallons per minute roughly. Like Dstrelioff said, the grass always comes back. 

But.....why wouldn't you direct this to the City, as in an email to the Works Mgr or a phone call?

Open it for public discussion to see how others in our community feel about it, maybe somebody can provide a reasonable reason for it.  

In case anybody's womdering or cares this is the resposnse I got from the  city works manager:

Hello Dylan,

 

Thank your email and your suggestion. We are monitoring our water levels and park watering and adjusting as needed.

 

Take care,

SDL

 

 

Well there you go. 
a reasonable response from the man whos hired and in charge. 
im sure he's well aware of the water restrictions and what's happening around here. Our town is so dry. Watering to maintain a bit of moisture is a good thing. Life needs water, bees need water, bug need water... it's all a cycle. 
im pretty sure your on the no mow train to save the bees... you m want to add a little water to your plants/lawn to keep up with your program. 


smart watering is not a bad thing Dylan

Well there you go. 
aA reasonable response from the man whos hired and in charge. 
I’m sure he's well aware of the water restrictions and what's happening around here. Our town is so dry. Watering to maintain a bit of moisture is a good thing. Life needs water, bees need water, bugs need water... it's all a cycle. 
I’m pretty sure your on the no mow train to save the bees... you might want to add a little water to your plants/lawn to keep up with your program. 


Smart watering is not a bad thing Dylan

I haven't mowed my lawn in years, grass is a waste of resources. Insetad I grow 1300 sq feet of vegtable garden to feed myself and roomate, my brother's family and others in the neighborhood. Oh, and the bees love it too.

I walked past centential ball field at 5:30 am, sprinklers running at full.  Walked to work again at 7:45, sprinklers still running at full.  I'll let you do the math at how much water is being dumped to grow grass just to cut it. Times that by three fields in town and we're looking at thousands of gallons of water daily if not in the tens of thousands.  And if you keep mowing grass, clover flowers don't grow for bees and it won't provide habitiat for other small critters either. You're literally watering the grass just to burn gas mowing it. And in regard to maintaining habitiat goes, two of three fields in town are adjacent to constucted wetlands, so again I don't see the reason to be watering grass for the maintenance of our local ecosystetm.  

  I'l stand by my opinion that this is extremely wasteful given that we're heading towards drought and well into the worst fire season we've possibly ever experienced.  And to the point of keeping grass green for fire surpession, if the ball field in town surrounded by houses or trees is burning, it's already too late. 

On an additonal note, I once heard Redstone uses 400,000 gallons (not litres) of water daily to grow grass, I could be wrong on the number but it's still going to be a disugusting amount.  Let's be thankful that golf course didn't get built at the ski hill in our watershed above our resevoirs.

This is a worthwhile discussion.  On the lawn I have in between the fruit trees and vegetable beds, I notice that when I cut my grass at the highest lawnmower setting, it requires far less watering and stays green longer.  I don't understand why city parks dont just cut a little higher, as you can still play on the fields, it will protect a bit more from root stress, and require less water. The shorter I cut my grass the more work it requires.

I really have no idea how to assess water reserves needed to fight an interface fire, but I should imagine there are plenty of firefighters and otherwise trained personnel who would be monitoring Rossland's situation quite closely.

Good point about the bees, Hutch.  That subject came to my mind just this morning, right after a bee stung my foot as I walked on my unmown lawn.  They're lovin' the clover heads, and I've tried to dodge them but obviously failed this morning.  It only hurt for a minute--a small price to pay for the good of the land.

Funny Chuckinrossland!!! had the same thing happen to me this morning as I walked out into my green mowed lawn. Who would of figured?!

Our Sprinklers here at Red Mountain Village  are on every single day I guess Stage two allows that. 

As per the city of Rossland website, FYI Grand Forks which has two rivers flowing through town has declared a state of drought and is under heavy restricitons.

Alternate day watering based on residential street number (odd/even).

Vehicles, boats, bicycles & motorized equipment can be washed by hand before 9:00 a.m. and after 8:00 p.m.

Residential hot tub and pool filling can be conducted only to comply