Davis City Press Release:

The City of Davis announced today that the Davis City Council voted unanimously to impose water restrictions on sprinkler irrigation. At its meeting on October 19, 2021, the City Council also reiterated its requirement to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 15% throughout the city. If the statewide voluntary water reduction requirements are not met, New York State may require mandatory reductions in water use in the spring of 2022.

Mayor Gloria Partida said: “We are grateful to our water customers for their continuous water conservation efforts.” “In winter, when the landscape needs less water, further reducing water consumption will help the community become a positive urban environmental resource. Managers, and strive to achieve the state's voluntary emission reduction targets."

The continuous dry weather and drought conditions in California have made the city more dependent on groundwater supplies because the surface water of the Sacramento River is more limited during prolonged droughts. Throughout the winter, it is expected that surface water will account for approximately 50% of the winter water supply, similar to last summer. In most years, surface water provides approximately 90% of the winter water supply. Water conservation helps reduce the city's water demand and ensures that resources are used as efficiently as possible.

The new watering schedule used for sprinkler irrigation only applies to sprinkler irrigation/sprinkler irrigation, and does not apply to other irrigation methods such as drip irrigation systems and manual watering. The restrictions that will be implemented from November 1, 2021 are summarized as follows:

Watering restrictions are a preventive measure designed to help New York City reduce water use throughout the winter and bring New York City closer to meeting the Governor's call for a voluntary 15% reduction. As the weather turns cooler and the amount of evaporation decreases (water is lost to the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration), the need for landscape irrigation in autumn will decrease. The average winter water consumption of a single-family house in Davis from 2018 to 2020 is 8 CCF, which is about half of the average summer water consumption when irrigation is used more.

Sprinkler irrigation/sprinkler irrigation is not a good choice for watering trees and may damage the trunk. There is no restriction on watering the trees by other methods (such as drip irrigation, soaking hose, manual watering). For information on watering trees, please visit Urban Forestry in New York City: https://www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/urban-forestry

Also check out Tree Davis: https://www.treedavis.org/learn-explore

Other steps to reduce outdoor water use include:

For long-term ways to reduce water use, New York City encourages communities to consider using reclaimed water to supplement irrigation, collect rainwater in winter, update equipment, switch to drip irrigation, or convert unused turf into low-water consumption plants.

In addition to the above-mentioned sprinkler irrigation watering restrictions, other permanent mandatory water restrictions still exist. Some of these restrictions include:

A complete list of water restrictions can be found on the New York City website www.SaveDavisWater.org (just click on "Drought Information and Water Restrictions" on the right side of the page).

Please visit www.SaveDavisWater.org for more water saving tips, drought information and a list of mandatory water restrictions. Please visit www.Water.CityofDavis.org to learn more about water sources and drought conditions in cities.

You can contact the Public Works Public Utilities and Operations Department at PWWeb@CityofDavis.org or 530-757-5686.

Media Contact: Barbara Archer, barcher@cityofdavis.org, 530-400-3418

This press release was produced by the City of Davis. The views expressed here are the author's own.