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During the summer, lawn watering is one of the biggest drivers of demand on Springfield’s water system. For this reason, City Utilities officials hope residents will water their lawn only on certain days. KSMU’s Benjamin Fry reports.
Springfield City Utilities has set up a voluntary watering schedule that’s designed to control peak water demand.
Cara Shaefer is the Director of Energy Management and Conservation at City Utilities.
She says when you should water your lawn depends on where you live in Springfield.
“If your address ends with an odd number, we would ask that you limit your lawn watering to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If your address ends with an even number, we would ask that you limit your watering to Wednesday, Friday and Sunday,” Shaefer said.
Shaefer says the more people who follow the schedule, the easier it will be to determine how long CU can delay the construction of additional water treatment facilities.
“Conservative estimates we are doing on this is showing that we could probably shave about five million gallons off of our peak day. And right now our system is growing at about a million gallons per day at our peak,” Shaefer said.
Shaefer estimates a reduction of this size could delay the need for another multi-million dollar water treatment plant for up to five years.
She says CU will promote this plan for a couple of summers before measuring its effectiveness.
“We think that these two years would give us enough data then to move forward because certainly it takes a long time to plan for that next water treatment plant,” Shaefer said.
Shaefer says residents who follow the schedule are more likely to not over-water.
Excessive water causes a shallow root system and less healthy grass.
Shaefer says most lawns in southwest Missouri only require a little more than an inch of water each week.
For KSMU News, I’m Benjamin Fry.
