AgdaPkt 2003-08-25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the City Manager August 25, 2003 Subject Application to Participate in the Large Landscape Water Conservation Audit Program Recommendation By Motion, authorize funding in the amount of $87,920, to continue participation in the Large Landscape Water Conservation Audit Program, for Fiscal Year 2003/2004 Background Pursuant to the California Urban Water Council (CUWCC), the City of Redwood City is a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Regarding Urban Water Conservation in California. The MOU includes the implementation of a Large Landscape Water Conservation Audit program, known as "Best Management Practice" (BMP) #5. The Bay Area Water Users Association ( BAWUA) has taken on the role of administering a regional program for this BMP. On March, 2002 BAWUA issued a Request for Proposals to potential consultants and interviewed 2 finalists on May 3, 2002, selecting the proposal from the consulting team of John Whitcomb /Chris Willig. BAWUA's Board of Directors approved the master contract at their June 27, 2002 meeting. This type of program is found to be most effective and cost efficient when implemented in a broad market, because of the highly technical requirements and the cost benefits of scale. On October 28, 2002, the City Council approved Redwood City's initial participation in the Large Landscape Water Conservation Audit program, to provide water use budgets to their customers with dedicated irrigation meters and comparing the water budgets with actual consumption. Under this program, in fiscal year 2002/2003, Redwood City provided water use budgets for all 509 dedicated irrigation meters, providing summary water use information for each one of the 260 sites. In addition, three sites received an introductory field survey to verify the landscape area measurements and perform an evaluation of the irrigation system, and 3 sites received a full field survey to measure the landscape area and perform irrigation performance tests to be able to produce the water budgets and recommended irrigation schedules. The program results have exceeded our expectations, resulting in water savings at the end of the billing cycle in May in excess of 20% of water use for all irrigation accounts, compared to last year's consumption. The response to this program has been very positive and we now have 21 irrigation sites scheduled for full surveys (see attachment), and we project increased participation in this program as property managers realize the full benefits they can achieve for water savings and reduced water bills. This program will also provide field surveys to 10 residential sites with large landscapes. 7 -IT -1 The goals for this fiscal year are, to continue providing monthly site water budgets for all irrigation sites, and to accelerate the implementation of field surveys for 150 sites. Therefore, staff recommends that Redwood City continues to participate in this program.