The City has received a $417,331 water conservation grant from the Metropolitan Water District – possibly the largest water conservation grant ever given to a City.
The grant funding is meant to help the City conserve more water and will be used to update and retrofit about 176 aged irrigation timers with Smart Timers – which adjust using satellites to daily weather conditions – along City-maintained public right of way landscapes.
The City’s Public Services Department, which applied for the funding, maintains more than 1,200 acres of irrigated landscape. More than 450 acres of the landscape includes slopes and medians along the public right of way.
Mission Viejo has long been an environmental champion and industry leader in responsible irrigation management. Emphasizing water conservation has long been a hallmark of the City’s agenda through monitoring field conditions, using recycled water whenever practicable and available, and selecting the proper plants for sustainable landscaping.
Just after Mission Viejo’s 1988 incorporation, Public Services began phasing in a centralized computer-controlled irrigation system focusing on the larger park and right of way areas to conserve the most water. The City’s “Smart Controller” system has grown to include a City-owned weather station that communicates to existing irrigation controllers making daily irrigation adjustments.
The grant money is a “win-win” for the City and environment and will bring the City closer to its goal of a 100 percent citywide centralized irrigation “Smart Controller” system. The irrigation controller retrofitting starts in January and is expected to be completed by summer.
