Every Thanksgiving, we sit down to enjoy time with our family and share a wonderful bounty of food. All that entertaining and preparing not to mention the clean up, requires a tremendous amount of water. This year, let’s take a minute to think about how grateful we are for the water we have. Thanksgiving Dinner From Farm To Table It’s estimated that producing a typical Thanksgiving meal for six – from farm to table to clean-up – requires more than 30,000... MORE >
Three years ago, the homeowners association (HOA) of Canterberry Crossing, a Colorado master-planned community, had an urgent problem. Their irrigation infrastructure responsible for watering the landscape of Canterberry Crossing’s 15 sub-communities and 2,500 homes was on the decline. Meanwhile water costs were rising—fast. They needed help. The first thing the ValleyCrest experts did once they came on board was a thorough audit of the irrigation system. Valve by valve, an irrigation tech noted all leaks or malfunctions and adjusted each... MORE >
Fall is in the air and the trees are beginning to show their fall colors. We know when the time comes to change our clocks we will “Fall back an hour”. Now is also the time to “Fall back” on the irrigation run times to minimize water use in the landscape. Fall Means Shorter Days Shorter days means less sun and less time for plants to grow. Less plant growth means most plants need less water. The exception to the... MORE >
Sometimes the cloud brings rain and sometimes the cloud brings opportunities for water conservation. The cloud in question is the internet and it has changed and will continue to change the way we live our lives. These four innovations (recently or soon to be released) may or may not disrupt the world of irrigation, but they do have significant water conservation implications. Droplet – Reinventing How Plants Get Water A combination of robotics, cloud computing and connected services transform the... MORE >
California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent State of Emergency Proclamation on drought conditions has focused attention on water scarcity and the need for efficient water use. Texas is also experiencing severe drought conditions. Colorado, Nevada, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have all felt the effects of drought recent years as well. The good news in all this bad drought news is there are still lots of basic, inexpensive ways to save outdoor irrigation water. A decrease of outdoor water use by just... MORE >
What does water stress have to do with Aerosmith, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein and Tony Robbins? They have all been credited¹ with a variation of the saying “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” The second half of the truism, “you’ll always get what you always got” applies to water stress. We got all the water we will ever get. Now, if we only “always do what we’ve always done” everything would be just fine.... MORE >
Pat Mulroy oversees the operations of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD). The Water Authority is responsible for acquiring, treating and delivering water to Southern Nevada. Mulroy was a principal architect of the Authority, which has allowed Southern Nevada to grow and thrive during a time of water shortages and drought. Pat is known nation wide as a leader in water management and conservation. She has negotiated numerous agreements with her neighbors... MORE >
If you were born in the 1960’s or later you grew up with edutainment. (Think Sesame Street, Magic School Bus, Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, etc.) Edutainment is the portmanteau formed by the words “education” and “entertainment”. In most cases edutainment is focused on school aged children who also happen to serve as a great conduit to help train their parents. My first introduction to child focused edutainment for water conservation was at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in 2012 where... MORE >
