As the drought continues in California this summer, Palo Altans are working hard to reduce water – taking shorter showers, not letting water run while washing dishes and more. But the biggest change happening all over town- and the one that is making the most dramatic impact on water usage- is turning off the sprinklers and letting lawns go brown. By embracing the mantra, “brown is the new green,” Palo Alto reduced its water use by 36% compared to 2013 for the month of June 2015.
[soliloquy id=”3073″]It’s estimated that watering a 1,000 square foot lawn with just a half an inch of water uses 330 gallons, so curbing household irrigation can make a huge difference for Palo Alto’s overall water consumption.
With a statewide mandate to reduce water usage by 25% and a local mandate to curb water consumption in Palo Alto by 24%, the City of Palo Alto is carefully tracking water use and urging people to keep vigilant about water waste.
As noted in a press release from July 23, “While all of Santa Clara County and Palo Alto’s water savings for June are encouraging, we still have a long way to go until the end of February, when the State will review agencies’ successes toward meeting water use reduction mandates. The entire community will need to work hard to achieve water savings during the hot summer months.”
Palo Alto Pulse took a ride around town to capture some images of newly brown lawns in Palo Alto, and found a wide array of homeowners who are letting lawns go.
And we also found a few homes that are using Palo Alto-based irrigation service called RainDance to deliver treated wastewater, which is another way cut municipal water use and still preserve some landscaping.
RainDance is a Palo Alto company that delivers treated waste water to irrigate gardens
this homeowner is a green grass holdout
