IRRIGATION: Now or Never

Since March 2007, Randy Bodine has teeter-tottered on two extremes of water restrictions. In his hometown of Auburn, Ala., the president of Bodine’s Landscape Services is under voluntary water use restrictions. But north of Auburn to the Tennessee line, in bustling cities like Birmingham and Huntsville, all outdoor watering is banned. Period. “We do irrigation work all over the state, so this had made things really hard on us,” he says.
 
Bodine’s not the only landscape contractor whose business is wilting from a lack of water. The National Drought Mitigation Center maps abnormally dry to severe drought conditions in most of the Southeast and Southwest, and even in seemingly unexpected areas like Montana, North and South Dakota and parts of Wisconsin. Areas of exceptional drought span from parts of Alabama to the Carolinas. In fact, according to a Government Accountability Office survey of water managers, 36 states anticipate local, regional or statewide water shortages by 2013, even under non-drought conditions.
 
With 48 percent of landscape contractors experiencing an increase in landscape watering restrictions over the last two years, how can they maintain their businesses? “Water restrictions have wide-reaching affects,” says Russ Prophit, president of Precise Irrigation Design and Consulting, Winter Haven, Fla. “For example, the water problems in Atlanta have certainly impacted the nursery industry here in Florida. Conserving our water resources will benefit everyone – from landscape contractors to tax payers.”

WHAT’S GOING ON? Most irrigation experts discuss three primary factors contributing to the country’s water shortages. The first, and most unpredictable, is Mother Nature. Average rain and snowfalls are considerably lower, vital lakes are drying up and warmer temperatures are evaporating precipitation faster than it can fall.
 
The second is the booming population growth. For example, growth in Birmingham has doubled in the last 10 years, yet the holding capacity of Lake Purdy, the city’s main water supply, has remained the same, and levels started dropping last year, Bodine says. Unlike in Birmingham, lawmakers in Auburn anticipated growth and tripled the capacity of its largest lake 10 years ago, a precaution Bodine says many other districts should take.

“Growth in many areas of the U.S. is outpacing what municipalities are doing in terms of water capacity,” he says. “When there’s not as much water to go around as it is, and then Mother Natures cuts you 20 inches short, you have a real problem.”
  
The third, and perhaps most prevalent, problem is lack of awareness about the need to conserve water and practice smart irrigation. According to 2007 Lawn & Landscape research, 91 percent, 73 percent and 80 percent of landscape contractors in the West, Southeast and Northeast/Midwest, respectively, use drip or low-volume irrigation. While those numbers are up from a few years ago, there is room for improvement when it comes to education. Research from the Irrigation Association (IA) shows there are more than 2,600 certified irrigation contractors, auditors and designers in a country of more than 40,000 irrigation contracting companies.
   
Robert Wade, owner of Wade Landscape in Laguna Beach, Calif., understands the value of education in the irrigation industry. A certified landscape professional from the Professional Landcare Network and a certified water manager from the California Landscape Contractors Association, he’s also applied to be a WaterSense partner through the Environmental Protection Agency and expects to be accepted any day. “We talk to property managers who’ve been told their system was in great shape when in reality it’s one of the worst systems I’ve ever seen,” Wade says. “The industry as a whole needs more education, but we also need to educate clients about problems to look for.”

THE BRIGHT SIDE. Wade is a rare example of an irrigation contractor who’s embraced the need for water conservation and used it to his advantage. While parts of California are awaiting a mandatory 30-percent cutback in annual water use, Wade and his crews are busy replacing outdated irrigation systems with smart systems and maintaining them for utmost efficiency. For the past three years, he has made a name for himself knowing the ins and outs of what he calls lean water management, which makes up about 40 percent of his total business. Commercial properties seek out the company and great word of mouth keeps the jobs coming. “It’s gotten to the point where property managers know we do this kind of work,” he says.
 
However, Wade’s residential clients present a bit more of a challenge. Of the 10 to 20 installations his crews perform each day, every single client has to be convinced Wade’s smart systems work and told why their current systems don’t. “Most homeowners are skeptical from the start,” he says. “Every day my guys have to educate someone at their doorstep.”
 
The cost of a smart system vs. a standard system is most clients’ main deterrent, Wade says. However, many counties in California reimburse those who invest in efficient irrigation products like smart controllers and multistream, multitrajectery rotating nozzles. While Wade predicts the rebates will dry up once water-conscious irrigation becomes standard (California law mandates only smart controllers will be available for purchase by 2010), he’s baffled why more homeowners and contractors alike don’t utilize the program now. “I’m not sure if it’s a fear of technology or a fear of the unknown,” Wade says. “But contractors who are seeing the water crisis affect their business negatively haven’t taken the time to see what’s available.”

TURN FOR THE WORSE. But the situation isn’t so optimistic in areas like Alabama where irrigation is currently not an option. For the past 23 years, Bodine has seen annual revenue growth of between 3 to 5 percent. That growth was flat in 2007. He historically adds about 20 to 25 seasonal employees, but had no need for them this past year. He’s downsized his equipment budget by 20 percent, and is tightly controlling spending in all other areas. He has 15 jobs – $500,000 worth of work – he’s either lost or has had to put on hold because homeowners don’t want to install landscapes they can’t water. “We’re at the point where we’ll drive that truck or use that mower one more year until we see what happens,” he says. “That’s the mindset of a lot of contractors.”
 
As a full-service company, Bodine is not only lacking on the irrigation side of things, but dry lawns also require less mowing. Tie that in with a shaky housing market and an economy on the verge of a recession and the outlook gets even bleaker. “How do you quantify how many millions of dollars have been lost in the Southeast’s irrigation and landscape industries?” Bodine asks, adding Alabama’s landscape industry generates $9 billion a year.
 
Bodine firmly believes green industry professionals are suffering due to municipalities’ lack of preparation. “Cities all over the country are simply unprepared for growth,” he says. “They’re not proactive – they’re reactive. When lakes dry up and there’s no rain on the horizon, you can’t just restrict companies that need water for their livelihood.”   
 
UNDER CONTROL. Ed Buchan, water conservation specialist for the Raleigh, N.C., public utilities department, has felt the brunt of some angry landscape contractors who share Bodine’s perspective. “We’ve eliminated lawn irrigation, which really puts an end to what lawn professionals are able to do,” Buchan said in a January interview. “If we don’t get a lot of rain this spring we’ll probably end up prohibiting all lawn watering this year.”
 
Buchan’s predictions were correct. Raleigh City Council voted to ban all outdoor irrigation and hand watering with a hose beginning Feb. 15, and the rules may worsen come spring and summer. It’s hard to argue the restrictions haven’t had a positive affect on Raleigh’s water supply. After the October irrigation ban, the city’s water use dropped 35 percent compared with average summer months, Buchan says, adding the new restrictions should add another 5 percent savings, or 1 to 2 million gallons per day.
 
He says the most common argument from landscape contractors is the green industry is being hit harder than any other that uses water commercially. While Buchan agrees, the reasons why are just not that cut and dry, he says. “Few industrial users have the capability of limiting water use,” he says. “Like a pharmaceutical company – they have to use a specific amount of water to operate. It’s hard to make everyone understand, and even when they do understand, they don’t like it.”
 
Another controversial aspect of restricting water use is it’s simply easier to monitor the water use people can see, like irrigation systems and car washes. “The average fast food restaurant probably uses the same amount of water as a car wash, but you don’t see that,” Buchan says. “The basic argument coming from the landscape industry is a fair one, but it’s hard to argue with the drinking water supply. Watering your lawn or washing your car is seen by many as a luxury.”
 
It’s true, most municipalities structure water restrictions in a way that makes them easiest to police, Prophit says. But many times, they result in the water not being used as efficiently as possible. He finds it impossible to properly irrigate many of his largest properties under Winter Haven’s current one-day-per-week irrigation schedule. “If everyone is only allowed to water on, say, Mondays, you use more water on that day than you would if you could stretch it out over seven days,” he explains. “Implementing one-day-per-week restrictions is the best way to police rather than the best way to use the available water.”
 
Prophit is spreading the word about the importance of smart irrigation and water conservation. As a state ambassador for the IA, he travels the country “talking to whoever will listen” about the industry’s problems and where it needs to go. “The word is getting out,” he says. “People are listening and understanding. The outlook is positive, but the process is slow.”