[Loud elongated beep]
[Classic background music ]
Did you know that Utah is one of the driest states in the nation?
[Background music continues]
Do you know how much rain Utah gets each year?
[Background music continues]
Do know how much water each person in Utah uses in a day?
[Background music continues]
Can you guess how much of that water goes on your lawn?
[Background music continues]
Utah's population is increasing.
Since 1990 the state has grown by nearly twenty-four percent.
While as a country, we've grown by only ten percent.
Utah has more jobs, more businesses, more traffic, and more homes.
And as our population grows, we use more water.
Recurring drought doesn't help either.
Residents along the Wasatch Front use sixty-seven percent
of their culinary water on their yards,
and nearly half of that is wasted.
It's easy to conserve water by irrigating properly.
You can still have a healthy and attractive yard.
A long watering guide has been developed
by the Bureau of Reclamation in Utah State University Extension.
Over the next few minutes I'll introduce you to the program
and show you how you can help save water.
I'll also give you some helpful hints on other ways to conserve water in your yard,
with a little help.
[Sound of grass being raked]
[Dr. Kelly Kopp]: Hi Kevin, how are you doing?
[Kevin, off-screen]: Oh I'm doing great.
I'm ready to save some water.
[Kelly Kopp]: Super, let's get started
by looking for some obvious problems with this sprinkler system.
[Kevin]: Okay.
[Kelly Kopp]: One thing you can do is make sure
that your sprinklers are watering the grass, and not the cement.
[Kevin]: Like patios and sidewalks.
[Kelly Kopp]: Exactly.
Now, looks like we've got a problem.
[Kelly Kopp, off-screen]: Yes that looks like it could be a clogged head.
Now, that causes problems because it doesn't distribute the water evenly, right?
[Kelly Kopp]: Exactly.
So we need to open this up, find out what's clogging the sprinkler,
fix it, so we get a good even spread across the yard.
That's exactly right.
Now let's go out here and figure out how long
we need to run these sprinklers to irrigate this lawn efficiently.
[Kevin]: Okay.
[All children simultaneously]: Can we help?
[Kevin]: Sure kids we could use the help.
[Kelly Kopp]: Why don't you guys help us put these cups out on the grass.
[Kelly Kopp, quietly]: There you go.
[Kevin]: Okay.
[Kevin]: Perfect that's great.
So, now the kids have put the cups on the lawn in kind of a grid pattern.
That's right.
That's so that we can see how evenly the water's being applied over the entire area.
So now what's our next step?
Well we're going to run the sprinkler system
and see how long it takes to get half an inch of water in these catch cups.
So, why a half an inch?
Well a half an inch of water is what you'd like to apply every time you irrigate,
and so we'll turn the system on and see how long that takes.
[Kevin quietly]: Okay.
[Sound of sprinklers shooting water]
[Child]: Hey Kevin, what about St. George?
That's where my ala lives.
Yeah, there is a difference, isn't there?
There's definitely a difference.
In St. George your grandma would want to apply
five eighths inch of water each time she irrigates,
which is this line right here on the catch cup,
instead of half an inch like here.
[Child]: What else can I do to save water?
You know what, we're going to show you some easy tips.
I think I can help.
Remember, you control your sprinklers, they don't control you.
You might need to get the manual out to figure out what- what start time is,
or how long they should water, or which station comes on next.
And if you need help, a friend or a neighbor would be glad to help.
Did you ever drive down the street
and see somebody watering their lawn in the middle of a rainstorm?
Well they make a real simple, inexpensive device that goes on your roof
and hooks into your controller system.
And it keeps your controller from coming on in the middle of the rainstorm,
and that saves water.
And avoids that, that common mistake of watering when it's raining.
[Sound of sprinklers running]
A healthy lawn should be watered deeply, and infrequently so the roots go down deep.
You can tell how far the water has penetrated by using a screwdriver.
As you push in the soft, moist soil lets it go down deep
and when it stops you've hit the drier soil.
Six inches or more is how far the water should penetrate.
[Sound of sprinklers]
The higher you leave the grass, the healthier the lawn.
When the grass is high, the roots go down deep.
And as a rule of thumb, you should leave your grass about two or three inches high.
[Sound of sprinklers]
Here's a question.
Do you take the grass clippings away, or do you put them back on the lawn?
Actually, if you put them back on the lawn, your lawn is healthier for two reasons.
One, the clippings act like a mulch and help keep water in the soil.
Second, there's all kinds of nutrients in this
and you oughta go back and put the nutrients in the soil,
and use less fertilizer.
[Kevin]: Hey thanks, dad.
It looks like our catch cups are full.
Now, how long did it take to fill these up?
[Kelly Kopp]: Well it took about twenty minutes.
Okay, now we know how long it takes, what do we do?
Well now we're going to be able to use that information
to set up an irrigation schedule.
[Kevin, quietly]: Perfect.
This schedule is for Salt Lake County,
but individual schedules for every county in Utah are available
through USU extension offices.
[Kevin]: Okay.
[Kelly Kopp]: And you can see that in the beginning of the growing season
you're watering less often,
but as it gets hotter you water more often.
Right up through the fall,
when you start to water less often again because it's much cooler.
You know, I'm going to have to try this in my yard.
So you can see, it's easy to save water with a simple evaluation.
A few adjustments to your sprinkler system and changes in the way you mow.
And for each unnecessary watering we avoid,
we save enough water for a hundred and four showers, or fifty-two baths.
[Kevin]: Remember
[All in unison]: If we each save a little, we'll all save a lot.
[Gentle background music]