SUCCESS STORY: Big Savings at Blackhawk  By Marisa Palmieri

THE BASICS:

Project: Blackhawk Homeowners' Association, Danville, Calif.
Contractor: Cagwin & Dorward, Novato, Calif.
Firm type: Full-service landscape contractor
Annual revenue: $35 million (5 percent irrigation)
Employees: 420
Irrigation Services: 40% installation; 60% maintenance
Irrigation Clients: 40% commercial
                               50% commercial residential
                               10% municipal

THE PROJECT: Cagwin & Dorward, responsible for managing water in all of the Blackhawk
Homeowners' Association common areas, began upgrading the irrigation system two controllers at a time in 2004.

Goals: Reduce water use and improve irrigation efficiency at this gated community with 2,000 single-family homes by updating the 20-year-old irrigation system. Changes include converting outdated controllers to a central control system and updating system design and existing sprinkler hardware. Project size (HOA common area only): 16 acres of turf 14 acres of shrubs and ground cover 80 controller locations 650 irrigation valves

Length of project: Conversion began 2004; two controller sites have been renovated each year. Next, the HOA will continue upgrades, replacing about four controllers per year.

Subcontracted services: Electrician for the hub installations (to tap into 110v source and phone lines)

Initial project estimate: $1 million

Final project cost: $1.2 million

Savings: 16 million gallons of water saved since 2004; equating to 24,000 units of water for a savings of $51,000 in HOA water costs. The East Bay Municipal Utility District’s material rebate program has returned $50,000 in credits to the HOA

Q&A with Roger Vesey, Landscape Installation Manager, Cagwin & Dorward

Smart Irrigation: How did you get involved in this project initially?

Roger Vesey: Cagwin & Dorward has been on site as the Blackhawk homeowners’ association’s landscape maintenance contractor for 13 or 14 years. Cagwin had installed the first ET controller at the baseball field in 2003-2004, and that’s when we began discussions with the community manager to try to look at how they could save water, improve the management of the irrigation system and upgrade what they had. That HOA is probably 25 years old. It’s a very upscale community with $1-million homes and up. It’s about 30 acres, and there’s a lot of pressure to keep up the landscape.

Smart Irrigation: Who manages the central control system today?

Roger Vesey: Cagwin & Dorward does. We can do if from a laptop with a software program and support from CalSense on the technical and training side. We’re able to manage eight of the nine controller sites because we have a hub installed that allows us to get that information on a laptop over a phone line.

Smart Irrigation: What’s your relationship like with the local water district?

Roger Vesey: We really worked in partnership with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. With the completion of each meter installation, as part of the rebate program, the water district provided us with a  water budget that we have to hit or come under for the year. The way it works is the HOA applies to EBMUD to participate by telling them how much they’ll be buying in irrigation materials – controllers, sprinklers, etc. EBMUD will rebate up to 50 percent. But any rebates over $1,000 is spread over two payments. The first is given after an EBMUD representative approves that it was installed to the initial specifications. The second half kicks in after a year of us showing we can meet or beat their water budget.