Water Conservation Outdoors

When you use water outdoors:

1. Do you use an auto shut-off timer when you water the lawn? Yes No

Some people may forget to turn of the water if it is not running fast enough to make audible noise in their pipes. A timer will take care of that by shutting off the hose spigot. This can save an enormous amount of water, and ensure that your yard or flowers will get the right amount of water, set it and forget it.

2. You do have a water nozzle that shuts off when not in use? Yes No

Perhaps the spring or internal gaskets or washers in your hose nozzle have worn out. Nozzles are cheap to replace and/or repair and save great volumes of water.

3. When you wash your car, do you shut off the hose nozzle between rinses?  Yes No

Have you driven through our neighborhoods and seen water running down the street as someone washes their car? Put a nozzle on it, one that will shut off between rinses.

4. Does water pool and run into the street or sidewalk when you wash your car or water your lawn? Yes No

This sounds like the two previous questions, but it is different. This is a case of watering too long, and/or a leaky faucet or nozzle. Better known as runoff, this occurs when the lawn is saturated and will not absorb any more water, just like after a spring rain.

5. When you water your lawn, do you wet the lawn a few minutes before you really water it? Yes No

Try it, about four or five minutes of water, with a break of five to ten minutes before you turn the sprinkler back on, will perk into the soil and enhance the capillary action of the particles of soil and allow it to actually reach deeper into your lawn and possibly even reduce the number of times per week you have to water it.

6. Do you water 1 inch onto your lawn when you do water? Yes No

I have read this several times and recommend this amount to keep your yard from turning brown in the heat of summer. You can measure how much you have watered with a rain gauge (a frozen fruit juice can works quite well).

7. Do you water more than twice a week? Yes No

This is the optimal amount to water in our area. Any more will wind up as runoff and wasted water, but you should use the method above for this to work well.

8. Do you use the right amount of fertilizer on your yard? Yes No

Too much fertilizer will burn your grass if it was not properly spread. One bag usually covers 5000 square feet. Runoff of too much fertilizer can create problems downstream in the form of algae bloom, which in turn can cause fish kills, upsetting the food chain, all the way back to your table and your pocketbook.

9. Do you water before you spread the fertilizer, and then wet it again after spreading? Yes No

Generally, this is how the instructions read. This opens up the capillaries and wets the grass for an even distribution of the fertilizer and then watering it in soaks it down to the roots. Because the manufacturers differ, follow the instructions.

10. Do you apply the right amount of insecticides on your lawn? Yes No

Please go by the manufacturer’s instructions. Too much will kill many of the pests that we deal with every year, but can also, if applied too heavily, kill the insects that help us, but can even get into the food chain to kill the birds that eat the lizards, that eat the mosquito’s on our front porches.

11. Have you drained oil, antifreeze, or other automotive fluids into the street or storm sewer to get rid of it? Yes No

The water collected in the storm sewers in the street is not treated before it flows into bayous and streams (only wastewater is treated—i.e., water that goes down the sink or shower drain or toilet). A quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of our precious water. Please do not dump. Harris County and the City of Houston have recycling programs and hazardous waste disposal days around the City and County. Look in our bulletin board for places, dates and times to get rid of these chemicals. If you were in our neighborhood about three years ago, you may remember the Hazardous Waste Day that we co-sponsored with several other utility districts. It was a real treat to see so many of our neighbors getting rid of these chemicals.

Antifreeze is getting much attention these days in the Texas State Legislature. Antifreeze, at this time, has a smell that attracts animals of all kinds, and it even tastes sweet and because of its attractive yellow-green color, it is attractive to children. The bill presented to the House of Representatives calls for an additive that will produce a foul odor and make it taste bad.

NEVER pour antifreeze down the drain or storm drains. Doing so puts this chemical right back into our water supply and in places that animals can drink it and die a slow painful death. Contact with the skin can cause a rash, possibly loss of hair and ultimately it is absorbed into the body, where in strong enough concentrations can lead to that same horrible death. Please dispose of your used antifreeze at one of the Hazardous Waste Day sites, so that it will not reenter our water supply or harm the animals.