While water conservation is improving, there are still many people who take water for granted, and don’t consider the impact of lawn irrigation on drinking water supplies and ecosystems.

While we would prefer for everyone to eliminate lawn irrigation altogether, if you must irrigate, please consider the following best practices:

• Do not irrigate mid-day or when it’s windy! As much as half of the water we use outdoors is being wasted due to evaporation, wind, or runoff.
• Upgrade your system with a moisture sensor, which turns on the sprinkler when actually needed. A home with an automatic irrigation system that isn’t properly programmed or maintained can waste as much as 30,000 gallons of water annually.
  
• Adjust sprinkler heads so that they do not water the driveway or sidewalk.  Your system can waste even more if a sprinkler head is pointed in the wrong direction, or you have a leak.
• Fix leaks promptly – call in a professional to make repairs.  A broken or missing sprinkler head could waste as much as 25,000 gallons of water and more than $90 over a six-month irrigation season.

Creating water-smart landscape designs and upgrading irrigation systems can go a long way toward outdoor water efficiency.

For more tips, visit the WaterSense website at www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoor.