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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />Audits of Major Commercial and Irrigation Water Accounts <br />Town of Castle Rock <br /> <br />In addition, the Outlets at Castle Rock could remove and replace the Kentucky bluegrass <br />located between the buildings to reduce outdoor water use. The landscaping could be <br />replaced with a mixture of hardscape and xeriscape plantings. If the bluegrass and other <br />high water use plants were replaced, at a cost of $13,000 to 17,000, the payback would <br />occur in 5 to 12 years dependant on the mixture of materials used and future cost of <br />water. <br /> <br />Irrigation Accounts <br />The large irrigation accounts served by the Town are generally similar. The irrigators <br />utilize water currently for the maintenance of bluegrass - either in streetscapes, <br />multifamily landscapes and/or parks. Water use in these areas may be reduced through <br />improved irrigation methods and practices, and for most areas (except certain portions of <br />parks) revised landscaping. <br /> <br />Unfortunately, most commercial irrigators over water by a substantial amount. As shown <br />in Table 8, nearly every large irrigator over waters its bluegrass and other high water use <br />plant materials, some by as much as 13 times too much, with few exceptions (e.g., Town <br />of Castle Rock Butterfield Park). In addition, only the Town's parks have ET controllers <br />or precipitation sensors linked to their programmable irrigation systems. Some of the <br />irrigators use human sensors to regulate when the sprinkler systems are activated (for <br />example the Pines at Castle Rock this year has hired an irrigation contractor that resides <br />onsite to manage their irrigation system); however, it appears that this approach is not as <br />efficient as it needs to be. <br /> <br />Many of the Town's large irrigators are in the process of determining their best approach <br />to long term landscape management. Most are looking to replace the bluegrass turf and <br />other high water use plant material with native grasses and other xeriscape plantings <br />mixed with hardscape alternatives; however the cost of these efforts is substantial given <br />that many of the large irrigators maintain many water taps and sprinkler systems. For <br />example, Founder's Village maintains and operates over 5,000 sprinklers using 24 taps to <br />irrigation over 800,000 square feet of plant material. They have reported spent nearly <br />$100,000 just to map there irrigation system and inventory the taps, sprinkler heads, <br />application rates and programmable equipment. They expect to be looking at turf <br />replacement programs as the next phase oftheir studies. <br /> <br />Alternatives and Recommendations <br />Given the similarity of the various irrigator landscapes, and therefore water uses, the <br />alternatives and recommendations for each are similar, varying only in there respective <br />payback periods, since the amount of practiced over watering varies from account to <br />account. <br /> <br />First, the commercial irrigators should look at installing properly programmed ET <br />Controllers. When linked to a programmable irrigation system, water use efficiency can <br /> <br />3-11 <br />