From The Douglas County News Press (Rhonda Moore):
Castle Rock offers Water Wiser workshops for free, courtesy of the utilities department. Participants learn irrigation tips, sprinkler system management and how to tap into the town’s water conservation resources. What they walk away with is a greater awareness of fundamental water-saving measures and a window sticker identifying them as a participant.
The sticker is the key to grant participants a waiver from the town’s three-day-per-week watering restrictions.
The town takes a proactive stance when it comes to water conservation, and part of its effort includes watering restrictions between May and August each year. The restrictions limit landscape watering to every three days for Castle Rock residents…
While the town aims for a zero penalty community for watering infractions, the penalty-financed rebates include the popular rebate for high efficiency washing machines and a rebate for replacing turf with drought-tolerant landscaping.
Of the several rebates available for water saving measures, all are exhausted for 2010 except the rebate for Smartscape renovation. The Smartscape rebate reimburses residents who replace their turf with water wise landscapes at a rate of $1 per square foot.
Department personnel rely on drive-by inspections and neighborhood watches to ensure residents are watering within their schedule, said Rick Schultz, water conservation specialist for the town’s utilities department. Those inspections are a thing of the past for Water Wiser participants.
“The main goal is to open people’s eyes to the common sense of irrigation and the common sense of managing your sprinkler,” Schultz said. “As a benefit we’ll exempt them from every third day watering schedule. By taking them off that schedule they have the flexibility to say, ‘it’s my watering day but it’s going to rain so I’m not going to water,’ and wait for another day.”
More conservation coverage here.
This is great! I wish the city of Tucson offered education like this for residents.