Large Scale Systems

Southern California Edison Mountain View Generation Station

Large scale projects are inherently wasteful in their use of water resources. Setting up such mega systems involves an increased number of variables, with a corresponding increased chance of errors. According to irrigation expert, Forest Hill, commericial turf applications typically include large rotor sprinkler heads with only 70% efficiency. Factoring for wind and runoff considerations, this efficiency is further decreased.

The Southern California Edison Mountain View Generation Station in Redlands California, has a very large street frontage area. It is currently planted with 2 ½ acres of turf. This facility was designed to use reclaimed water.

During the summer, the turf required thousands of gallons of water, (though recycled) still represented a large expense. The system included 38 separate valves used to irrigate the turf. The watering schedule required 12 hours a day, frequently for five or six days a week. An immense volume of water was needlessly applied to the turf each week.

Swan Drought Tolerant Technologies was selected to install the project and the assigned landscape architect specified “smart controller” manufactured by Toro. After initial configuration and programming, the system applied water only when specified by daily data from a local weather station. Now the system dynamically controls individual valve irrigation timing and is equipped to terminate all watering during rainfall periods.

Edison officials were pleased with the immediate water usage reduction, cost savings and automatic unattended operation of the system.