The town of Windsor Parks and Recreation department has turned off the irrigation at all of its properties in order to help conserve water to fight the Walbridge and other fires.
“Last week in response to the fires, Sonoma Water sent out a ‘call for conservation’ on water to all citizens and agencies. Parks and Recreation staff initially responded by reducing the amount of water being used, keeping some grass areas going to maintain the health of park turf,” said a statement from the town. “As the Walbridge Fire incident continues and looks to be ongoing, staff will now completely shut off the irrigation in hopes to further assist with the necessary water for fire suppression. Please note that there may be some browning of turf during this time related to the reduction of irrigation.”
Sonoma County Water sent out the conservation call on Aug. 19, due to the fires and their proximity to county water sources.
“As you are probably aware, there are several wildfires burning in Sonoma County. Sonoma Water, a provider of water to many jurisdictions in Sonoma County is urging that you take immediate water conservation steps,” said the statement. “This is an urgent situation: The largest of these wildfires could threaten an important source of water that Sonoma Water gets from the Russian River. The more water we can store for domestic and firefighting purposes, the better prepared we will be as a region during this emergency.”
At the time of the initial announcement, the town cut its own water usage and town staff released a set of guidelines to help residents conserve water, including:
- Turn off all outdoor water for irrigation. (Irrigation accounts for a large portion of water usage in summer)
- Reduce indoor water use as much as possible. (Take fewer and shorter showers, flush toilets only for solids, postpone laundry washing, wait to run the dishwasher until it’s full)
- Postpone washing of vehicles and other outdoor water uses.
- Turn off auto-fill valves to pools, spas, decorative fountains, and ponds, or delay adding water manually.
- Set water softening systems to bypass auto-regeneration cycles for the duration of the emergency.
- Use a bucket to catch and reuse water when washing fruits and vegetables and when waiting for hot water from faucets, showers, and tubs. Use for watering potted or in-ground plants inside or outside your home, or for toilet flushing by pouring into the toilet bowl.
On Monday, the town followed through with a complete shutdown of its irrigation.
“Staff has turned off irrigation in all town parks and at athletic fields for a short time,” said Parks and Recreation Director Jon Davis. “The county call for conservation initiated the reduction in irrigation. Since then, staff assessment determined the ability to safely reduce irrigation even further, shutting things off for a short term, to further answer the county’s call for assistance.”
According to Davis, it takes about 255,000 gallons to irrigate all the town parks and green space per daily irrigation cycle.
“Even if it’s only turned off for a few days we will realize a considerable savings in water,” said Davis.
Davis says the town is planning on keeping the water shut off for as short a time as possible and will be monitoring fields to prevent any long term damage.
“Staff will be assessing each facility daily to insure nothing dies or is damaged beyond a slight browning of turf. If needed staff will apply irrigation in vulnerable areas as needed,” he said. “The time frame is very short term, no longer than the Walbridge incident shows good progress towards containment, and it looks to be headed in that direction currently. Staff will still do its part as always to conserve water throughout fire season without jeopardizing any of the town turf, plant material and environmental assets.”
