USU Extension Services 1999 Water Check Report

March , 2000

LeRoy W. Hooton, Jr, Director

Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities

1530 South West Temple

Salt Lake City, Utah 84115

Dear LeRoy:

Salt Lake City Public Utilities is a partner with Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District and Utah State University Extension along with other Water Districts in promoting residential water audits and landscape assessments. The 1999 "Water Check" program was very successful and we plan to double the effort in 2000. Thank you for your participation in this program.

We accomplished 446 'water checks' out of 772 requests for assistance. A total of 169 (38%) of all the water checks accomplished were in Salt Lake City (Table 1). The purpose of the 'water check' is to teach the citizens correct principles about wise outdoor water use and to establish a proper watering schedule for them. During the site assessment, the Extension interns measure the following parameters: lawn root depth (Table 2), hose pressure (Table 3), hose flow in gallons per minute (Table 4), head pressure in a sprinkler zone with both fixed (Table 5) and rotor heads (Table 6), fixed head distribution uniformity (Table 7), rotor head distribution uniformity (Table 8), fixed head precipitation rate in inches of water an hour (Table 9), and rotor head precipitation rate (Table 10). These tables compare the 16 cities currently in the database for each of the parameters. All the tables list the parameter from low to high so you can easily see how Salt Lake City Public Utilities ranks with each parameter. 

We hope to expand the 'Water Check' measurements to include lot size and percent of area landscaped during 2000. This will allow the calculation of actual water used in relation to the turf water demand over the growing season (Evapotranspiration measurements for exact lot size).

We also plan to review water use records over the next three years in order to measure any reduction in water use (water conservation) by those citizens receiving a 'water check' against other citizens picked at random.  The format would be the same as our early study with Salt Lake City residents showing that citizens receiving a water audit in 1996 were able to reduce their outdoor water use by 18% during 1997 and by 23% during 1998 over their 1996 values. We have not yet calculated the 1999 results. This report was shared with you earlier and is now on your excellent web site.

If you have any questions on the data summary tables or want to see the rough data, don't hesitate to give me a call. If you wish, I would also be happy to present it to your Board of Directors.

Sincerely yours,

Earl K. Jackson, Professor

Table 1. Number of Calls City   Number of Calls   Number of Checks Buffdale                3                0 Draper              37              17 Herriman                2                0 Holladay              19              10 Kearns              17              15 Magna                6                3 Midvale                2                1 Murray              34              27 North Salt Lake                1                 1 Riverton              20              13 Salt Lake City            308            169 Sandy City            121              71 South Jordan              26              12 Taylorsville              15              12 West Jordan              70              52 West Valley City              50              36 Outside Salt Lake County              15                1 Unknown              26                6 Total            772            446