Number of meters affects each park's green areas

Of the dozens of drought-related documents emanating from Yorba Linda's governmental bodies, one of the most interesting is a six-page report from a city-hired consultant analyzing the impacts of the new water-use restrictions on the city's extensive, heavily used park lands.

The report sees several negatives from the 36 percent water cut, including “sports field users … playing on bare dirt fields for some significant period of time” and “very significant costs” to replace park landscapes when drought conditions allow “more normal” water management.

The consultant, Santa Ana-based Richard Fisher Associates, also notes that spotty areas of surviving turf thatch “will create uneven playing surfaces for both the players and rolling balls” and warns of “the risk of sports injuries” from playing on bare dirt.

And the cost to renovate park landscapes once drought restrictions are lifted “will be well in excess of $2 million,” based on a $216,000 projection to return Eastside Community Park – about 10 percent of the city's total park acreage – to normal conditions.

Interestingly, consultant Fisher notes all city-owned parks have weather-based controllers, so they're exempt from the water district's Stage 3 rules that limit watering to 15 minutes per station and two times weekly (April 1-Oct. 31), then just once per week (Nov. 1-March 31).

However, Fisher reports the exemption “does not remove the issue of the city being levied fines” for using more than 115 billing units of water per meter per month in parks. Fines for residential water use begin after 18 billing units. Each billing unit is 748 gallons.

For example, since Eastside Community Park has five meters, the park can consume 575 billing units per month, which Fisher states would be 1.09 inches of applied water monthly.

But Fisher cites “a built-in inequity in the fines criteria” because Box Canyon Park has one meter compared to Eastside's five. So, according to Fisher, the water district's 115 billing unit limit allows 33.8 units of water per acre at Eastside and 25.5 per acre at Box Canyon monthly.

“The demand for water per acre for the two parks should be considered identical as the land-scape materials are virtually the same,” Fisher notes, adding that the water district's limitation does not take “the number of meters serving a given site into consideration.”

Based on data gained from experimental turf plots studied by two University of California Co-operative Extension experts in turf management, Fisher has assisted the city in developing a plan for a 36 percent water-use cut in parks.

The plan reduces watering in passive park areas – shrubbery and ground cover area – by 50 percent and active turf areas – athletic fields – by 20 percent to achieve an overall 36 percent reduction.

The report's data and projections are based on “typical high summer temperatures and no supplemental water from summer rainfall.”