CRC_SlowTheFlowPhase1_FinalReport

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9news.com Page 1 of2 9NEWS."ta..com Non-profit helps homeowners maintain truly green lawn written by: Adam SchraQer 9NEWS Reporter Created: 7/12/20054:42 PM MDT - Updated: 7/13/20059:09 AM MDT .. LONGMONT - Like many homeowners facing 90:...degree temperatures 11 of the last 12 days, Jeff Wilson looks out on his . Longmont lawn, specifically its brown spots, and frets. "If you don't keep the water on it or timed right, you do develop brown spots," Wilson said. "If you're trying to have a green lawn, well, I don't like it. So, Wilson has called for an irrigation audit from the Slow the Flow program, run by the non-profit Center for Resource Conservation (CRe) in Boulder. Unlike an Internal Revenue Service audit, this audit is free of charge and actually, saves homeowners money, instead of costing them. "In this case, an audit's free and there are no penalties and interest," said Wilson. "I'm going to save money. I'm going to save time. It's going to be more efficient for the lawn." Andrew Burow spent two hours Tuesday at Wilson's house, looking at the distance between sprinkler heads, measuring the amount of water falling on different parts of the lawn and checking to see the soil content and root depth of his lawn. Burow will recommend a watering schedule and whatever mechanical upgrades are needed based on his evaluation. The program is free to homeowners in Boulder, Erie, Golden, Lafayette, Longmont, Thornton and Westminster. Last year, the CRC performed almost 500 audits and found nearly 91 % of the systems installed did not meet the irrigation industry's efficiency standards. This summer, there are 10 auditors in the field, seeing four homes per day, five days a week. They will audit 1,500 homes before the end of the season. The cities have entered into contracts with the non-profit to pay for the audits. Their goal is to provide homeowners with a better lawn at a better cost, while conserving valuable water in the process. "(Water) is one of the most precious resources we have," said Burow. "Human nature is 'I'm going to turn up the amount of water (on the brown spots). It'll get enough water on the low spots by doing that, but then, you're using more water then you need to on other parts of the lawn. So, ideally, you want to time up your system." Wilson's watering plan will change from ten minutes per zone twice a day to three minutes per zone three times a day. Burow recommended running the cycles back-to- back-to-back to prevent runoff and maximize coverage. He will also change one sprinkler head from a rotating head to a pop-up sprinkler to match the rest of the heads on one of his zones. Burow suggested that to avoid having to over-water the area covered by the pop-up heads while getting the appropriate amount of water on http://www.9news.com/acm news.asDx?OSGNAMR=Kl TSART TJ(()R TPrTTn=nrl1h;.:;:.frlfj\ "7/1 (\ I'HV\:;