I don't have very many pet peevers, but the one I do have is front and center in the newspapers and on the news, and that's water waste.
It really bugs me when I drive down the freeway at 1:00 in the afternoon only to see the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) watering the freeway dividers. I learned many years ago that watering is most effective early in the morning, like when it's still dark but just before sunrise, to help control excessive evaporation.
I used to think that it might be CalTrans testing or repairing the irrigation systems, but when the same place is being watered an hour later with water now running down the hillside and on to the freeway, well, that theory has been laid to rest many times.
There is one stretch of freeway here between home and office where they seem to water every day at 1:00, for an hour or more. Well, we currently are under a Level 2 drought, and four of the restrictions are:
- Residential and commercial landscape irrigation is limited to no more than three assigned days per week from June through October, and no more than once a week from November through May.
- Residential and commercial lawns and landscapes irrigated by sprinklers are limited to no more than 10 minutes of watering per irrigation station per day.
- Residential and commercial landscape watering is restricted to morning and late evenings.
- Water waste resulting from inefficient landscape irrigation, such as runoff, low head drainage, or overspray is prohibited.
Well, today on the way to the office, no watering. On the way home a couple of hours later, no watering.
Now if they will just put those restrictions on the walls of their offices and practice them even when we're not in a drought.
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Jim, do they not know about xeriscaping? It's possible to do beautiful landscaping with plants and ground covers that require little or no extra water. I'm amazed that CA irrigates their ROWs. We don't here in GA and have shrubs, trees, wildflowers, and grass.