City’s big water users seek cuts

Many of Petaluma’s largest water users, including golf courses, cemeteries and other landscapes that rely on water-intensive outdoor irrigation, are already within reach of the conservation targets Gov. Jerry Brown set this month to deal with the state’s four-year drought.

Managers overseeing Petaluma’s landscaped sites said they have reduced consumption through voluntary cutbacks and a transition to irrigation with highly treated wastewater that is kept separate from the municipal drinking supply.

While the irrigation of large landscaped areas may raise eyebrows in a time of drought, Petaluma city officials note that those users represent only one piece of the conservation puzzle facing the city as a whole.

“We expect to add a few more acres to the purple pipe system this year,” said Dan. St. John, Petaluma’s director of public works, in reference to the recycled water systems used for irrigation at some sites in Petaluma. “But this is not the silver bullet, it’s just one of a hundred things we all need to be doing to save water.”

Petaluma Golf & Country Club, which uses potable municipal water for irrigation, is among the users likely to face scrutiny under the 25 percent water conservation mandate. The nine-hole facility has already voluntarily reduced its use by 20 percent since 2013 and is on track for a reduction of up to 30 percent by the time the rules go into effect, said Chris Gay, general manager.

Achieving that benchmark required a reduction in irrigation to the course itself, he said. Yet Gay, who is also the club’s head golf professional, said that a drier landscape is not necessarily a bad thing for players.

“What everybody talks about is ‘firm and fast.’ In the near term, that will probably be the name of the game,” he said. “Personally, I’d rather have drier conditions.”

Golfers themselves have been some of the strongest voices in questioning course managers about water use, said Bill Carson, director of operations for the 120-acre Rooster Run Golf Club.

“I walk the course every day, and people always ask me, ‘Where are you getting your water?,’” he said.

Rooster Run will soon transition away from a small proportion of irrigation from municipal water and a private well to irrigation with 100 percent treated wastewater from Petaluma’s Ellis Creek wastewater treatment plant, Carson said. As recycled water is not used for drinking, its use is not currently considered subject to the governor’s order.

“We’ve been able to show we’re doing our part while maintaining the same levels,” Carson said.

Yet he noted the pressure facing golf courses around the drought-stricken West.

“We have to maintain a course, otherwise we don’t have a business,” Carson said.

Petaluma City Schools has reduced potable water irrigation on its 17 campuses by one-third over the past two years and around 50 percent on non-sports-related fields, said Julia St. John, director of maintenance and operations. The district also began recycled water irrigation at Casa Grande High School earlier this year, and plans to install irrigation-free artificial turf at the campus football field this summer.

She cautioned that Petaluma’s clay-rich soil can fissure without water, creating a potential hazard for children and sports players that irrigation helps to control. Campuses have focused irrigation on high-use areas like sports fields, while maintaining a base level for other areas.

“We’re trying to balance water and safety,” she said.

That balance is also a concern at Petaluma’s 40 public parks, where water use has been reduced by one-third over the last two years, said Ron DeNicola, the city’s park and landscape manager.

“For the last three years at least, we’ve really tightened our belts. Some parks kind of suffer a bit, but we keep them alive. They’re not lush looking,” he said. “You’ve got thousands and thousands of park users – they need to be safe.”

Irrigation with municipal water was down 9 percent across all of Petaluma in 2014 compared to the prior year, primarily due to the expansion of “purple pipe” to deliver recycled water to Casa Grande and some city parks, said St. John, the public works director.

While the reduction has saved 22 million gallons of drinking water, those savings amount to less than 1 percent of the city’s overall water use, he said.

“Conserving water is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Mike Healy, Petaluma city councilman. “We should look at all the ways we can conserve our water.”

Petaluma as a whole has reduced potable water use by over 20 percent in the past two years. Finding ways to encourage more savings and comply with the forthcoming rules from are state is expected to be among the topics at a special City Council meeting on April 27.

As California continues in a fourth year of severe drought, the looming possibility of further mandates has helped encourage water use reductions at Cypress Hill Memorial Park, said General Manager Carolyn Fulton.

The 36-acre cemetery, first established in Petaluma more than 150 years ago, irrigates with water from a private well. It has reduced use by around one-third through upgraded sprinkler systems and other measures, she said.

Groundwater is not currently part of Gov. Brown’s order, but the passage of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 gave local agencies the power to study and ultimately regulate its use.

“We’re a cemetery – we need to be considerate of our families. They come first,” Fulton said. “What we really hope is our families understand the situation.”

DeNicola, Petaluma’s parks manager, also expressed concern for the future.

“What if we have a fifth year of drought?,” he said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscouri er.com.)