Beverly Hills Watering Restrictions

The City of Beverly Hills has followed the lead of Los Angeles and will have new watering restrictions for automatic sprinklers, effective July 1st, 2009. Residents north of Santa Monica Blvd can water on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays only, and residents south of Santa Monica Blvd may only water on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. No watering is allowed between the hours of 9am and 5pm, or on Sundays. More info can be found here: Beverly Hills Water Conservation.

City of Los Angeles Water Restrictions

Effective June 1st, 2009 residents of the city of Los Angeles will have to change the way they use their automatic sprinklers or be subject to a fine. The biggest part of the new emergency water conservation regulations is that you can only use your sprinklers two days a week, Monday and Thursday. You may hand water on other days, but you can't use water in your yard at all between the hours of 9am and 4pm. You also may not water more than 15 minutes for rotor type heads or more than 10 minutes for other types of heads like pop-ups or other spray heads. There's an exception for drip that uses less than two gallons per hour. The list of sprinkler use restrictions is available here: http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp011971.pdf

There are some restrictions that seem to run counter to previous water-saving efforts led by the DWP before, like the programs that offer free "smart" controllers and nozzles designed to prevent runoff like the MP Rotator. The Weathermatic Smart Line controllers, which have been given away in incentive programs, use site information in conjunction with a weather station that takes daily readings to computer just how much water is needed for your lawn. It also stops the controller from running when it rains, and even skips cycles after it rains if necessary. These controllers that are designed to use water efficiently and know when to shut themselves off might actually violate the new regulations if it decides a station needs to run more than 15 minutes. You can tell the controller to water Mondays and Thursdays, but if it calculates it needs to water a section longer than the allowed times, you would be subject to a fine. Rotors and MP Rotator heads typically need to run about three times as long as a spray head to put out the same amount of water, yet they are only allowing 5 minutes more per day (10 minutes per week) for these types of heads. Hopefully there will be come re-clarification or tweaking of the rules to allow these heads, especially the ones being suggested because of their run-off reducing ability, to be used.

We can help you program your controller and try to come up with a game plan to both follow the rules and still get the proper amount of water to your yard.

Change In County of Los Angeles Backflow Form Policy

Recently new instructions appeared on the test forms for backflow devices under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County:

Do not release this original test notice to the testing company. Keep the original and do not presign or predate it. The testing company is only certified to test the device. Once the testing company has filled in appropriately and returned it to you, sign off and mail it in. The testing company should not mail it.

Our policy has been to mail in the test forms for the customer as a courtesy. This also helps keep a record of our test results for our customer's file because we can make a copy in our office before the original is sent out. We can no longer do this for Los Angeles County. If you get a test form from Los Angeles County, we recommend making a copy of the completed form for your records once the device has been certified. Things do occasionally get lost in the mail, and while most agencies only accept original forms, they do sometimes make exceptions and you could save yourself the trouble and expense of having to have the device retested if something does happen to the original.

So far, this is the only local agency we know of that requires this, but it wouldn't be surprising to see others follow suit.

Smart Controllers

What is a “smart” controller? Essentially it’s a controller that “knows” how to water your yard using a combination of historical geography-specific data, a calendar, and additional site information programmed into the controller by the user. These controllers can save water and save you money while protecting your landscape. They can also help to prevent runoff, which is becoming increasingly important as more stringent water regulations are put into effect. As cities and states make a move to be being more water wise, these types of controllers might become a necessity.

Our preferred “smart” controllers to install are the Weathermatic SmartLine series. It’s a modular system, so depending on the model you can have anywhere from 4 to 48 stations. It programs much like a conventional automatic controller, but has additional water saving features like user-preset monthly water budgeting. The real “smart” part comes when you also install the weather station and utilize the Auto Adjust mode. In this mode, the weather station monitors actual weather readings 24 hours a day and in conjunction with site-specific information entered in by the user, like type of sprinkler, plant and soil types, adjusts the controller settings accordingly, even daily if conditions change that frequently. You can even fine tune beyond that using the More/Less function to adjust up or down by percentages for areas of your yard that are in shade or sunlight all day, or even shady in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.

Another reason we like the Weathermatic SmartLine is that there are no added fees, and no Internet or phone lines are required. All data is from on-site, and everything is done at the controller unit itself. If the controller is mounted outside, service can be performed even if you are not home.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the SmartLine series is that the controller itself isn’t any more expensive than other professional grade controllers that don’t offer the same features. Reducing water usage, protecting your landscape, avoiding fines for water waste and saving yourself money in the process is very smart, indeed.