AWWA SOURCES59260

The Alameda County Water District (ACWD) serves the cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City, California. Commercial, Industrial and Institutional (CII) customers comprise 30% of ACWD customer base. Within the CII customer class, 52% have one or more dedicated landscape meters. This paper describes the Dedicated Landscape Partnership (DLP), ACWD's premier CII large landscape survey program, created to meet the best management practices (BMP) goals for BMP 5 and 9 of the California Urban Water Conservation Council's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The DLP is a three phase program designed to: create water efficiency awareness in large landscape water use in the CII sector by means of water budget reports; program participant recognition for efficient landscape water use; and, offer detailed irrigation system audits and create financial incentives to upgrade irrigation systems for gross over-users. Phase I of the DLP began performing landscape site measurements in 1999 in a cost-effective manner through the use of part-time intern staff. Actual consumption obtained from the District's customer database was compared to site-specific turf and non-turf landscape water requirements based on measured landscape areas, calculated using local climate conditions downloaded from the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS). By tracking landscape water use and creating a historical water budget database, ACWD has been able to implement Phase II of the program in May 2002. Phase II recognizes those DLP participants, and associated landscape contractors, whose landscape water use per calendar year remains within budget. Certificates of Recognition as Water Conservation Businesses of the Year are mailed to qualifying participants, along with their landscape contractors. These recipients are also printed in the local newspaper one Sunday in May, during Water Awareness Month. A pilot program to offer irrigation audits began during the summer of 2002, in preparation for launching Phase III of the DLP in 2003. Beginning in 2003, gross over-users within the DLP are being targeted for detailed irrigation surveys, as well to determine their potential for inclusion in a regional evapotranspiration (ET) controller grant program. This regional grant, awarded by the Department of Water Resources (DWR), will be funded through June 2005. Phase III will also include a pilot Geographic Information System (GIS) segment to determine the effectiveness of digitally calculating landscape square-footage in creating water budget reports. The cost-effectiveness of incorporating remote sensing imaging and software in the DLP is also being considered to optimize staff time and program effectiveness. Since outdoor water use accounts for up to one half the total water use within the District's CII customer sector, finding cost-effective ways of reducing landscape water use is paramount to ACWD water resources management. Includes figures.