Opinion: Commercial community should share in water-saving effort

Santa Clara County is making headlines for being a leader in water conservation. The efforts we undertook this summer have resulted in our county exceeding our board’s call for conservation. In June 2021, the Valley Water Board of Directors established a 15% water use reduction call for Santa Clara County, compared to 2019. After months of steady progress, Santa Clara County reached this goal in July, saving 16%.

I want to thank everyone who made a difference for our community by taking steps to reduce water use during this drought. We don’t know how much rain and snow this winter will bring us, so we must continue reducing our water use.

In September, our board of directors amended our water-waste ordinance to include the state of California’s ban against watering decorative lawns on commercial, industrial and institutional properties, including homeowner’s associations. The watering ban applies to turf that is ornamental and not used for recreation. It does not apply to residential lawns, school fields, sports fields or areas regularly used for civic or community events. Residential lawns are subject to a two-day watering limit.

According to the State Water Board, not watering non-functional grass at commercial, institutional and industrial properties will save the equivalent of water used by as many as 780,000 households annually. Because these entities use 41% of our county’s water supply, it’s critical that this community take permanent steps to reduce water consumption and make conservation a way of life.

The ban on watering decorative commercial grass is an opportunity for our business community to adapt to our new way of life. Valley Water invites our CII community to take advantage of our landscape rebate and new lawn-to-mulch rebate to quickly adapt lawns to meet the ban on irrigating non-functional turf while still looking great. Valley Water offers free outdoor surveys to help you identify maintenance priorities and upgrade opportunities. Please consider them before you apply for a rebate as they’re very helpful.

Community members can report incidents of water waste to Valley Water. Property owners reported to be violating the water waste restrictions will receive a letter to encourage water conservation and provide tips on fixing the water waste.

Thanks for making a difference in your community by saying yes to saving water. Let’s continue working together to keep up the excellent progress. Find water conservation, surveys and rebates at watersavings.org.

John L. Varela is chair pro tem of the Santa Clara Valley Water Board of Directors.