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Thank The Water Cheaters

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: April 1, 2009

BALM - Researchers working to determine whether high-tech irrigation controllers can help conserve water and save consumers money recently installed the gizmos in Riverview, Valrico and Apollo Beach - areas they identified as having the highest water usage rates in the county.

The University of Florida study, commissioned by Hillsborough County, is funded by water cheaters - people who didn't follow the county's watering restrictions and got busted.

Some $500,000 in water-waster fines paid for plots at UF's Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm, where scientists tested irrigation timers against high-tech evapotranspiration controllers, or "smart controllers" that use satellites, weather information and other data to determine when irrigation systems switch on.

The first part of the study showed an annual 43 percent savings in water use, said UF graduate student Stacia Davis, who worked with associate professor Michael Dukes on the water study.

The scientists installed evapotranspiration, or ET, controllers in 20 homes in Riverview, Valrico and Apollo Beach and are monitoring another 18 neighbors who use traditional timers to determine when to irrigate.

"The objective of the research is to see if the smart controllers will save water," Davis said.

Researchers want to know if homeowners get the same savings they saw at the research center, on plots that were monitored regularly.

Even if the county imposes more stringent water restrictions, in light of the ongoing drought, study participants will be exempt to continue the study, said Norm Davis, technical director for the county's water conservation program.

It's too soon to know whether the water savings will be duplicated for the homeowners, Norm Davis said. He said the county is hoping continue the study until 2011.

Scientists do know that the newer gadgets are complicated to program. "These have excellent viability for golf courses and parks," he said, but they may be too complicated for the average homeowner to operate.

The study's success, so far, is in what you don't see, said Geoffrey Denny, an environmental horticulturist at the Balm research center.

Two water lines were hooked up to each plot at the research center. One irrigated patches of St. Augustine grass, the other ornamental plants.

Looking across the expanse of mini urban spaces, it's nearly impossible to determine which were watered with traditional timers and which used the high-tech smart controllers - and a lot less water.

"That's kind of the idea," Denny said.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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