Cagwin & Dorward Landscape Contractors

October 7, 2008

Water Efficiency has become a continuous challenge. Cagwin & Dorward is here to help.

Alameda's Baywood Village HOA was concerned about their water use. So concerned, they'd invested in upgrading their landscape irrigation system with 11 Aqua Conserve ET controllers, January, 2005.

While the installation took advantage of EBMUD's water conservation rebate program, they expected their investment would pay off quickly, with ample water savings.

When Cagwin & Dorward took on the landscape maintenance in November 2006, Account Manager, Javier Murillo, inspected the systems programming.

The settings looked suspicious; nothing like what he'd expected to find.

Javier obtained the original recommended programming from EBMUD. With these water budgets in hand, Javier reprogrammed each station, (further reducing run times where landscape conditions would allow).

After just two weeks on site, with all the reprogramming completed, Baywood Villages water use should have begun to decline. But after a couple months, something was still wrong;
3 out of the 9 irrigation water meters showed higher water use than the EBMUD’s watering budgets used to reprogram the controllers.

After some investigation, it was determined that the controller reprogramming had been tampered with. Locks were then installed on the irrigation controllers to prevent further "adjustments" by others. Now, Baywood Village could enjoy the water savings they were expecting.

Not for long. On July 8, 2008, EBMUD announced a 30% reduction in landscape irrigation water use, effective the meter reading on or after August 1, 2008. Javier scrambled to meet the challenge.

Crew Leader, Carlos Ramirez, reading a Baywood Village water meter.

Meeting with Paul Schultz, a Cagwin & Dorward Senior Irrigation Specialist and CLCA certified Water Manager, a meter reading, adjustment and forecasting schedule was created.

With a spreadsheet system adapted from water savings methodology used at nearby customers, Javier and Paul began tracking and comparing meter readings. They incorporated CLCA's Mid-month Projection Calculation Spreadsheet to project water usage by the next EBMUD meter read. It also compared that projection to the restriction goal provided on EBMUD's website.

Controller adjustments were made accordingly. Baywood's next scheduled meter reading was October 7. By that date, water usage would have to be in compliance.

By the first EBMUD meter reading, under the new restriction, all of Baywood Village's landscape irrigation water meters came in below their water restriction goal.

Note: To determine Baywood Villages landscape irrigation water reduction goal, EBMUD averaged the last three years of water use and established 30% of that average to be their reduction goal for 2008.

While EBMUD set a 30% reduction goal for the property's landscape irrigation, the site's 3 year average (Oct. 2005, Oct. 2006 & Oct. 2007), came in at a 42% reduction. Between recent years (October 2007 vs. October 2008), Cagwin & Dorward helped Baywood Village HOA save 35% in water use.

Javier credits such success starts with being able to work closely with a customer who's interested in water conservation. Both Baywood Village's Landscape Committee Members and Suzanne Ashby, Community of Harbor Bay Isle's property management representative, shared concerns about improving their water use. With Javier’s water management training, knowledge gained from other sites, partnership with Dave Langridge, EBMUD's Commercial Water Conservation Manager, and coordinated effort with Cagwin & Dorward's Water Management Specialist, Paul Schultz, effective solutions were quickly achieved for the customers changing needs.

News - Baywood Village HOA Water Meter Survey = Savings