John Ossa: The Next Generation

John Ossa

The future of the green industry is at the intersection of sustainable and cost effective solutions.  We will be subject to ever increasing regulatory mandates and restrictions. The mandates will impose metrics that hope to measure “sustainability.” The focus of the mandates and restrictions start with water – both water use and water availability. We will have to prove that our water use is at ever-increasing levels of efficiency. Water availability will be understood as constrained by non-point source pollution – an area where we need to improve.

We will have to demonstrate a more comprehensive understanding of the “inputs” into a site, and a greater understanding of the environmental impact of our work. “Inputs” include using less gas and oil to run equipment. “Environmental impact” includes mitigating the removal of bio-mass from a site by re-thinking the fundamental nature of the landscape. Communities are coming to a collective realization that the true cost of refining and delivering potable water is such that we may no longer be able to afford to use it on the landscape.

The green industry will be tasked with a more diligent and focused effort of protecting the watershed of the sites on which we work. This is essential to water availability. The days of using a product whose only attributes are “quick release,” pelletized for ease of handling and at the same time harmful to the watershed are over. Witness the recent New Jersey legislation mandating fertilizer content and when contractors may apply fertilizer. The day is coming when the off-site migration of pollutants and contaminants from landscapes will be analyzed for the “signature” of the contents that are contained in the water.  The unique signature can be traced back to the point of origin and the contractor could be held accountable for negative consequences to the watershed. This is analogous to the ways in which manufacturers are held responsible for the consequences of their product performance through the notion of extended producer responsibility. 

There is good news in the quest for higher levels of irrigation efficiency. Irrigation manufacturers are delivering improved products. Recent product introductions include advances in spray nozzles such as Hunter’s MP Rotator, and Toro’s Precision nozzle. A significant improvement over conventional drip irrigation has been developed in Australia, and introduced to our market by Irrigation Water Technology America. Its system, Kapillary Irrigation Sub Surface Systems (KISSS), emphasizes reliability at very high levels of efficiency, and neatly solves the weak points of conventional drip irrigation.

Affordable sensor technology such as the weather station that Rainbird’s SMT controller uses, or soil moisture sensors such as those by Baseline and Acclima are robust, easy to deploy and available for commercial and residential use.

Cost effective, resource efficient and a positive impact on the environment is what is expected of our service and products going forward. With all three requirements in place and working together, we have a bright future.

John Ossa owns Irrigation Essentials, a web-based irrigation consulting firm. See www.irrigationessentials.com; mail ossa@gie.net.