Sprinklers are on in Sacramento’s Land Park. At 1130am. Isn’t Monday a no-watering day, @TheCityofSac ? #CAdroughtpic.twitter.com/tKm8OCLbKz
— David Bienick (@kcrabienick) June 8, 2015
Earlier today, KCRA3’s David Bienick asked us about some watering that was occurring on a non-watering day. “Sprinklers are on in Sacramento’s Land Park. At 1130am. Isn’t Monday a no-watering day, @TheCityofSac? #CAdrought”
While this would be true for any resident or commercial property, the City uses slightly different methods for watering Parks Systems, and for good reason. Our water experts chimed in and gave us this answer.
David,
What you’re seeing in Land Park today are tests of the lines for broken sprinkler heads. Even with this testing, it isn’t uncommon to see watering on days/times other than those in the watering restrictions.
William Land Park, in particular, is 300 acres and involves 67 clocks timed to water on weekdays. Parks are not watered on weekends as that’s when most people are visiting them. Also, William Land Park is on a water well, and there isn’t enough water pressure, or time, within the restricted hours to complete the watering.
Parks irrigation systems are all metered and the data shows that we are averaging a 39 percent reduction in water use since 2013.
Remember, we take the drought very seriously, but malfunctions do occur when you consider 258 irrigation clocks and some 29,000 irrigation valves and 500,000 sprinkler heads that can fail despite preventative maintenance. We always encourage anyone that sees what they think might be a broken sprinkler head to call 311 to report the issue.