Homeowner tracks efficient water use after changing landscape

By S. Virginia De Herdt
Correspondent

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Since 1997, my husband and I have deliberately changed our landscaping to save water, and we now have data to show those efforts succeeded. Our household total water use dropped from 125,000 gallons in 2000 to 77,000 in 2003--a 38 percent decrease.

Most of our landscaping changes took place in 1997 and 2001, when we removed all but one small section of our rye-brome-fescue lawn, replacing lawn with beds, flagstone garden areas and a small section of buffalo grass.

Observations

To determine whether we are really saving water, I gathered our ELCO water bills and put the data into a spreadsheet. Missing information for 1998 and 1999 came from ELCO general manager Webb Jones. I also looked at our annual total water use in the context of historical precipitation records. Here are some of my observations.

• The years 2000 through 2003 were dry ones. They were so dry that in 2003, ELCO implemented lawn-watering restrictions with the goal of customers reducing their use by 20 percent. I was pleased that in 2001, 2002 and 2003 our household water use decreased by 26,000, 6,000 and 16,000 gallons respectively. That's about 21, 8 and 17 percent, respectively.
• I read that the '90s was one of two pretty wet decades in Colorado, unlike subsequent years so far. On first examination, the total gallons we used in 1995-97, when compared to those used in 2001-03, looked pretty similar. Precipitation records also showed that 1995 through 1997 were part of an unusually wet decade, whereas 2001 through 2003 were very dry. This provided the perspective I needed. I am curious what our annual water use figures for the current landscape in future wet years will be.
• So why that low figure in 1997? Well, 1996, 1997 and 1999 were especially wet years--with 1997, the year of the July flood, the wettest of them, according to Fort Collins monthly precipitation figures. Our low total use, just 56,000 gallons, reflects that I followed rule number one for efficient watering--when it rains, turn off the sprinkler system! That also was the year we started stripping out lawn.
• And why that high figure in 1998 - 161,000 gallons? We were still in a wet decade, but that was the year we planted seven pinyon pine trees and regularly soaked them with a hose at least every two weeks.

Benefits

Now, let's put our household water use into the context of figures for ELCO customers. I asked Jones when ELCO last charged the surcharge fee for exceeding annual allocation limit. He explained that every year about 30 percent of ELCO customers routinely exceed their annual allocation and, therefore, pay ELCO's conservation charge.

Because we've never come close to exceeding our 240,000-gallon annual allocation, I assumed exceeding the limits was a difficult and rare occurrence. Jones said that we sound like careful water users.

I gained another perspective when he said: "You probably have neighbors who use 300,000 gallons every year and pay the conservation charge. It's not much ... adding up to only about an extra $40 per year."

The money collected through this surcharge allows ELCO to cover costs they incur to supply water above a lot's allocation limit.

Jones also explained that average indoor winter usage is about 5,800 gallons a month per household. Since on average, ELCO figures 2.85 people per household, that calculates to each person using 24,421 gallons per year, or about 2,000 gallons a month. (Our household consists of my traveling husband, myself and our cats, and our winter usage typically runs from 2,000 to 4,000 gallons a month.)

ELCO customers reduced their water use over the period covering 1999-2003 from 180,000 gallons per year to 140,000 gallons per year (22 percent). Our total water use by my calculations dropped from 125,000 gallons in 2000 to 77,000 in 2003 (38 percent decrease).

According to ELCO, over 50 percent of water used by customers is for outdoor watering. Jones said excess water usage is primarily driven by how people irrigate their lots. When it comes to efficient water use, he said, "It's not so much the landscaping as how the landscaping is irrigated."

Watering restrictions of past years made people realize how little you have to water a landscape to keep it looking nice, he added.

Looking back on this whole process of planning our landscape modifications, I see his point. I was guilty of being ignorant about water conservation. I left our sprinkler settings at the initial settings needed to establish plants their first year per the directions of the landscapers. It's also true that I read and listened to experts talk about xeriscaping and drought tolerant plants, and I learned how to use efficient watering techniques. I even, at one point, calculated the rate of water application for each of our sprinkler zones by measuring water collected in empty cat food cans and then adjusted how long I ran zones. But I may have to do this again for remaining spray zones, just so I can use those free special containers that ELCO is offering.

So I suspect Jones is right--our household water savings probably occurred mostly because of how we now apply water to our landscape and not just because of the landscaping changes we made.

But I don't miss our old lawn.