Three-day schedule conserves water

Nothing but force of habit is preventing Carson City residents from adopting a three-day-a-week watering schedule for their lawns.

Lawn experts will tell you that many residents water their yards too frequently anyway, resulting in shallow root systems that have troubling surviving the inevitable midsummer heat waves. A good soaking once or twice a week is generally enough.

Under the system considered by city supervisors on Thursday, even-numbered addresses would water on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Odd-numbered addresses get Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Monday becomes the day of rest for the water system, giving it a chance to recoup as much as 5 million gallons of storage.

After a half-dozen years of drought, Carson City's supply and delivery of water has been pushed to the limit. We shouldn't need to remind people how close some neighborhoods came to the brink of disaster during the Waterfall fire, had city officials not begun taking some precautionary steps in the earlier weeks of the summer.

Long-term, it simply makes sense to adopt a more conservation-minded approach to summer irrigation. Water is the most valuable of resources in the arid West, and it should pain any resident to see it wasted.

A Mondays-off approach is a good start. But more can be done.

-- We encourage every homeowner to take a second look at his or her landscaping, especially people building new homes or relandscaping their yards.

Lush, green lawns are a wonderful respite in Eagle Valley, where once was little but sagebrush. Still, there are plenty of low-water landscaping alternatives to broad expanses of grass. Include them in the design.

-- Keep after the scofflaws. We still see too many residents who seem to have missed the message - or perhaps don't care about water conservation. Sprinklers running in the middle of hot, windy afternoons. People power-washing their driveways. Get a clue.

-- Money remains the best incentive. Residences using the most water, in the highest tier of the city's rate structure, should pay through the nose. Carson City's water remains awfully cheap.

Extra revenues can be put into water-conservation education programs and into hiring more water watchers during the summer.