Even though we had some rain Thursday afternoon, "Water Watchers" with the Truckee Meadows Water Authority were still out in full force.
It's part of a program where TMWA drivers commute through different neighborhoods to educate residents on how to save water on their property. More water watchers have been hired this year, double than normal because it's another abnormally dry year. Right now there are 12 water consultants working in the Truckee Meadows.
Channel 2 News went along for one of the patrols and discovered the common mistakes people made with misusing water and how to fix it.
TMWA's vehicles have also recently gotten a makeover with new wrapping along the sides of the cars. They have been driving through neighborhoods and checking out hundreds of homes a day to make sure water is being used properly and not wasted.
Driver Drew Merrigan has been doing this job since April. "Today we are driving around in the Damonte area, looking for people watering on the wrong day or water waste that's coming from their property,” said Merrigan.
We drove by several homes until we saw a home overs praying water that was leading into the gutter. Drew explained the problem to the resident. "You guys do have some water waste coming from your property and leading into the gutter and sidewalk,” said Merrigan. He also offered a solution to the problem. "If you can, adjust your sprinkler heads that way you're not getting any over-spray onto the sidewalk and the street,” said Merrigan. "You do have a little slope so maybe turn down the run times for your sprinklers as well just a little bit and that should get rid of it."
If neighbors weren't home during our stops, water consultants would leave a "water-saving package" with information at the door. Feedback on the water watchers from most customers has been very good.
"Once we inform them that we're just here to basically educate them to help prevent water waste, they definitely come around and are very receptive,” said Merrigan.
Customer service manager Andy Gebhardt says TMWA is also requesting customers to cut back on 10% of their water use, inside and outside which he says saves a lot. "Think of anything you do 10 times and do it 9 times instead. You know, if you had 10 loads of dishes, do 9 loads of dishes,” said Gebhardt. "It's 5,000 acre feet or 1.6 billion gallons of water. If you think about it, that's a lot of water in anybody's book."
The most common water wasting mistakes are wrong day watering and watering at the wrong time.
The water watchers program has been going on since TMWA began operating.
For more information on TMWA water conservation efforts, you can go here:
https://tmwa.com/conservation
