The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has released the final version of California Water Plan Update 2023. This plan is a critical planning tool and can now be used by water managers, such as water districts, cities and counties, and Tribal communities, to inform and guide the use and development of water resources in the state.
With climatologists predicting the potential for above-average precipitation in the months ahead due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, it’s an ideal time to take advantage of the County of San Diego’s upcoming rainwater harvesting workshops and rain barrel rebates.
The County’s Waterscape Rebate Program will host free rainwater harvesting workshops in Fall and Winter 2023. Workshops help residents learn how to capture rainwater to supplement their irrigation needs, save money on water bills, and protect our region’s environment by preventing pollutants from spilling into regional watersheds.
The County of San Diego holds free rain barrel rebate workshops at different locations. Use the QR Code for the latest schedule. Photo: County of San Diego
The next scheduled workshop is Wednesday, November 8, at 1 p.m. at Tractor Supply, 27444 Valley Center Road. Future workshops will be listed on the County of San Diego Waterscape Rebate Program website.
At the end of the workshop, residents who live in unincorporated areas of San Diego County may be eligible to receive a free rain barrel. Participants in incorporated areas can check their rebate eligibility on the San Diego County website’s interactive map.
The County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program (WPP) partners with the San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (through SoCal WaterSmart) and can assist residents in determining which program benefits are available.
During San Diego County’s limited periods of rainfall, any rainwater captured from your roof and property saves money. It also helps the region maintain its water supplies.
Directing downspouts into water-collecting features in your landscaping makes use of rainfall. Photo: County of San Diego
Workshops introduce residents to several beautiful, efficient ways to save rainwater. In addition to rain barrels, directing downspouts to fill containers lets you choose how to use the rainwater you capture. The overflow should empty onto your yard or a landscape feature to infiltrate the excess flow into the soil. Rain chains can assist with this.
The Countyl of San Diego is committed to protecting the water quality in county creeks, streams, and coastal areas. Runoff from irrigation, storms, and even faulty septic systems can bring pollutants to county waterways and threaten public health.
When businesses and households make changes to reduce water use and use rainwater in their landscapes, it helps preserve healthy, safe waterways and more reliable water supplies.
After buying rain-saving containers or other items eligible for rebates, and have installed them, residents can apply for rebates. Current rain barrel rebates are $35 and are limited to two per household for most San Diego County residents. Multiple projects are eligible. Details at: Socal WaterSmart.
Making use of rain barrels is good for the environment and good for your household budget. Photo: National Audubon Society
Whether or not El Niño results in increased rainfall, even light rain can provide enough water for later use. A roof with a 2,000-square-foot surface area can capture 300 gallons from only a quarter inch of rain.
Stored water can be released gradually into landscaping between winter rainstorms, building up the soil sponge and ensuring that native plants get adequate water during the winter months when they need it most. If additional water is needed in the summer, captured and stored water during the winter could be used as supplemental irrigation.
The Solana Center For Environmental Innovation website has additional information on rain barrels and rebate programs.
Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.
In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive.
So, Kane quit his job in commercial real estate and stepped in to help his mom turn the farm around, or “they would have lost the investment,” said Kane.
During that time, the Fallbrook area had been a hub for agriculture, specifically avocados. But many farms ceased operating due to a complex suite of factors that include increasing water and labor costs, competition from imports, and climate volatility.
Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around. But challenges remain.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Water Savings Incentive Program, or WSIP, helped Kane to increase water-use efficiency at the farm. Rice Canyon Ranch and Kane were recognized with an award. He was one of six honorees selected based on their remarkable water-saving projects and facility upgrades funded by the WSIP.
Each unique project was recognized in a May 2023 ceremony for its technological innovations, environmental stewardship and water sustainability.
Metropolitan’s One Water Awards ceremony at the California Endowment in Los Angeles honored organizations that used funding from the WSIP to make major improvements to their water management operations and equipment, such as installing smart irrigation technology, water recirculation systems and soil moisture sensors.
The Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
“The transformation of daily operations for these organizations translates into long-term, sustainable change for entire communities,” said Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil. “The ceremony demonstrated that when everyone does what they can to use less water, we produce real water savings that benefits millions.”
Named for Metropolitan’s approach to water management that values and acknowledges that all water resources are connected, the One Water Awards program amplifies the success of participants in its WSIP. The program provides funding to commercial, industrial, institutional and agricultural customers that make water efficiency upgrades to their facilities but may not qualify for Metropolitan’s standard commercial rebate programs. It pays up to $0.60 per 1,000 gallons of water saved annually through customized projects that are developed by each organization to fit its needs.
The WSIP program and incentives were critical to implementing Rice Canyon’s strategies and have helped significantly reduce costs.
Rice Canyon replaced existing, or old trees, with “high-density planting.” How did removing old trees and high-density planting save water and money?
Kane says Haas avocado trees reach up to “40 feet and out 50 feet, it’s a massive tree and older trees would climb higher and higher in the old way of growing.”
Instead of planting trees like the typical spacing for avocado farms in the past, the new trees were planted on 10 feet by 10 feet spacing. Kane says that change to smaller spacing allowed reduced water usage, reduced loss due to deep percolation, inhibited weed growth, and excessive evaporation loss through overgrown canopies. Plant “material changes” meant using mulch to save water.
“Avocado roots are only about six inches deep, so they require a lot of water,” Kane explained. “But adding a layer of mulch keeps the roots wet, reducing irrigation and saving water.”
The 60-acre Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
“With the fruits on the canopy – and all the water needed to pull the water up to the canopy – a 9-foot-tall tree, cutting and pruning it back, is more efficient with the sun, space and way more efficient with the water,” said Kane.
Kane says before the changes in tree spacing, use of mulch, and smart irrigation, the water costs for the avocado farm were about $250,000 a year.
“Our water costs are about $62,000 a year now, a cut of roughly 75-percent, which is huge,” Kane said.
He said the farm received $238,000 from the WSIP program for the water-efficiency project and the operation now saves about 34-38 million gallons of water a year. Kane says the 10-year projected water savings is 350 million gallons.
Even with the grant, and all the changes to the farm – including smart irrigation techniques, Kane says competition from outside the U.S. is a big factor in making a profit.
“We’re giving it a go and trying, but the price per pound – with competition from a lot of overseas fruit, from Mexico, Argentina, Peru – is a key factor for us,” said Kane.
“Farming is not easy by any means,” said Kane. “The price we get for our avocados is about the same per pound today as we got 10 years ago. There are no guarantees, but the way we had to make it work was to reduce water expenses as much as we could.”
Kane has this advice to remain profitable for other growers of avocados or similar crops for smart irrigation.
“You have to think outside the box to make it, decrease expenses and increase profits – never stop learning,” said Kane. “Any old time farmer growing avocados the same way as 40 years ago, must change and adapt with the times.”
He says despite the water cost savings, use of water sensors and other changes, growing avocados for Rice Canyon is a tough business.
“It is a labor of love, not a business of income, but the water grant gets us closer to making it work,” said Kane.
(Editor’s Note: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a water wholesaler. Since 1990, Metropolitan has invested nearly $1 billion in conservation programs, saving about 3.5 million acre-feet of water. Rice Canyon Ranch is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies.)
Santee homeowners Edie and Tate Thomas created a beautiful landscape with California native plants to save water, beautify their home, and support the region’s wildlife. Their effort won the 2023 Padre Dam Municipal Water District landscape makeover contest.
Buried large unglazed clay pots in their yard called ollas, allows watering the plants with minimal water loss. Photo: Padre Dam Municipal Water District
In 2018, the couple began working on their makeover project. Edie Thomas is an architect, and Tate Thomas is a contractor. They took advantage of their building and design skills by creating a topography to capture and preserve the rainwater falling on their yard.
Their landscape is irrigated through underground rock ravines that collect rainwater in a rock-lined underground cistern reservoir which flows water to plants through gravity. They also buried large unglazed clay pots in their yard called ollas, which have above-ground access points to refill them with water. Plants wrap their roots around the porous ollas, which seep water out as needed, watering the plants with minimal water loss.
Edit Thomas advises other homeowners to do the same with their landscape topography.
“I always recommend people visualize a single drop of rainwater falling at the highest point of your landscape,” she said. “Watch where gravity takes that raindrop and plan your landscape around that flow.”
The pair also use drip irrigation about once a month along with occasional hand watering during extended dry periods.
A wide variety of California native plants are featured in the winning landscape design. Photo: Padre Dam Municipal Water District
Long nature walks and information from the California Native Plant Society inspired the Thomas’s to use native plants for most of their landscape, mixing colors and texture to be visually appealing. They have been richly rewarded with an ecosystem of butterflies, caterpillars, bees, birds, and bunnies. They describe their design concept as “playful chaos.”
The sidewalk in front of the garden is designed to be a community space for those walking by. The large California Coastal Live Oak provides shade to the retaining wall, designed as a place to sit and rest. Visitors can browse through books from the couple’s Little Free Library. Water-efficient herbs growing in the planter boxes under the tree are offered to those who pass by.
Edie and Tate Thomas spend most evenings on their patio, enjoying the space and watching their ecosystem thrive. They look forward to watching the plants grow and mature in the coming years and even decades.
“It’s so rewarding to see people come by and rest in the shade or take some rosemary for their dinner,” said Edie Thomas. “I love that we get to give a small square of land back to nature and that our neighbors enjoy it as much as we do.”
(Editor’s note: The Padre Dam Municipal Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the San Diego County region.)
Californians gave their irrigation systems the winter off in much of 2023 thanks to above-average precipitation. As the weather warms, the U.S. EPA encourages everyone to perform a maintenance check in April as part of its “Sprinkler Spruce Up” effort.
A sprinkler spruce-up involves four steps: inspect, connect, direct, and select. Cracks in pipes can lead to costly leaks, and broken sprinkler heads can waste water and money. System maintenance can help save money and water, up to 25,000 gallons of water, and $280 over a six-month irrigation season. April is an ideal time to spruce up your irrigation system.
Because most irrigation systems run in the early morning, missing or broken sprinkler heads may go unnoticed. This can cause overflow or flooding on landscapes or waste water on hard surfaces.
Inspect your irrigation system and look for sprinkler heads that do not pop up fully or are tilted. Flag them so they can be located and repaired later. You may be able to do it yourself but call on a WaterSense-certified professional who can replace the broken sprinkler heads.
Leaks can occur at the joints between sprinklers and the piping. Leaking joints can also be caused by too much water pressure or particles in the water. Check to ensure your pressure regulator is installed properly.
Between irrigation cycles, look for water pooling on the surface of your landscaping. This could be caused by an underground leak. Check the connections inside valve boxes to make sure all the valves and other components are securely connected. If the valves cannot close completely, your system could slowly seep water even when turned off.
Irrigation water spraying on hardscapes instead of landscape plants is wasted down the stormwater drain. While your system is running, note any overspray and adjust sprinklers toward your landscaping.
The greatest waste of water in landscape irrigation comes from watering too much, too fast. Observe how water absorbs into the ground during the watering cycle. If water begins running off your landscaping or pooling, run sprinklers in multiple shorter sessions with breaks. This allows water to soak into the soil and minimizes runoff.
Instructions to help homeowners check in-ground irrigation ground systems here: “It’s Time to Start a Sprinkler Spruce-Up!” The EPA’s checklist “Find It, Flag It, Fix It: A Checklist For Your Landscape” shows how to walk through your landscape to identify problems. The checklist also provides additional irrigation and landscape tips and suggestions about when to call in an irrigation professional.
Encinitas, Calif. — In order to promote outdoor water use efficiency, Olivenhain Municipal Water District, San Dieguito Water District, and Santa Fe Irrigation District invite members of the public to attend a free WaterSmart landscape design workshop on Monday, April 3, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The event will be held at the Encinitas Community and Senior Center at 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive in Encinitas.
Steve Sherman of California Landscape Technologies will provide an informative and interactive workshop that will feature methods to reduce outdoor water use and increase irrigation efficiencies. The workshop will provide homeowners simple, step-by-step approaches for creating attractive, water-wise landscapes that are easy to maintain.
Registration for the workshop is required at www.olivenhain.com/events.
This free two-hour workshop is offered through a partnership between OMWD, San Dieguito Water District, and Santa Fe Irrigation District.
The Bureau of Reclamation has announced a $7 million investment for 82 small-scale water efficiency projects across the West.
The grants will support local community projects, including measuring water flow, automating water delivery, or lining canals. The funding is part of the WaterSMART program, which supports states, Tribes, and local entities as they plan for and implement actions to increase water supply through investments to modernize existing infrastructure and avoid potential water conflicts.
“Community-driven projects are at the heart of WaterSMART, and small investments can go a long way to support water supply and reliability,” says Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “These water efficiency improvements are small, but when combined throughout the West, the projects play an important role in communities becoming more resilient to drought.”
The past three decades have brought mounting evidence of climate change, a tenacious drought in Arizona and appliances offering unheard-of water efficiency.
“The residential water use per capita has been declining for the last 30 years or so. And indoor water use has especially been going down,” said Sarah Porter, director of Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.
Any WaterSmart landscape makeover starts with observing and recording your property as it exists today. Think of it as a bird’s eye view or satellite map showing your property’s boundaries and physical features. This becomes the basis of all your planning. You need a few basic tools to draw your own plot plan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the San Diego County Water Authority with a 2021 WaterSense Excellence Award for advancing water efficiency through its Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper, or QWEL, program. The Water Authority received one of 34 WaterSense awards last week at the national WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Water Authority pivoted its QWEL courses to a virtual format. The Water Authority partnered with San Diego Gas & Electric to install nearly 4,000 WaterSense-labeled showerheads for county residents and helped reduce outdoor water waste by using its WaterSmart Contractor Incentive Program to install more than 1,000 WaterSense-labeled irrigation controller stations, saving more than 6 million gallons of water.
“Working collaboratively with the EPA to increase water efficiency by training hundreds of landscape professionals each year makes a significant contribution to saving water, especially during dry times,” said Gary Croucher, Board chair of the San Diego County Water Authority. “The QWEL program is an effective education program for landscape professionals that provides the knowledge and skills needed to help our communities save water and keep landscapes healthy and beautiful.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the San Diego County Water Authority with a 2021 WaterSense Excellence Award for advancing water efficiency through its Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper, or QWEL, program.
As one of the first QWEL providers in Southern California, the Water Authority has helped to expand the program’s branded outreach and educational outcomes. Since the January 2016 launch of QWEL, more than 1,400 San Diego landscape professionals have participated, making the region’s program one of the largest in the nation. More than 800 landscape professionals have earned QWEL certificates in the San Diego region over the past six years by passing a rigorous national test.
The Water Authority promotes English and Spanish QWEL training in collaboration with trade associations, faith-based organizations, English-as-a-Second-Language programs, community colleges and Master Gardeners associations. Nearly all (99%) program participants surveyed said the class would help them better manage landscape water efficiency, and 98% rated the class good or excellent.
This is the third time the Water Authority has achieved the Excellence Award for the QWEL program, which is certified by EPA to significantly increase water management skills and knowledge among landscape professionals.
WaterSense, a voluntary partnership program sponsored by EPA, is both a label for water-efficient products and homes and a resource for helping consumers learn ways to save water. Since the program started in 2006, WaterSense labeled products have helped consumers and businesses save 5.3 trillion gallons of water – enough water to supply all households in the United States with water for 200 days! In addition to water savings, WaterSense has helped reduce the amount of energy needed to heat, pump, and treat water by 603 billion kilowatt hours and save $108 billion in water and energy bills.
“In 2020, our WaterSense partners continued to make saving water possible by educating consumers and businesses about WaterSense and water-efficient behaviors,” said Veronica Blette, the WaterSense program manager. “Our award winners’ creative and committed approaches to water conservation helped consumers save water, energy, and money on their utility bills at a time when they needed it most.”
The San Diego regional QWEL program is made possible in part by grant funds from voter-approved Proposition 1 administered by the California Department of Water Resources.
For more information about WaterSense go to: :www.epa.gov/watersense.
For more about the Water Authority’s QWEL program, go to: https://qwel.watersmartsd.org/.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
