Drought water rules to hit west valley residents harder during overseeding

Coachella valley landscapers and homeowners are being encouraged to wait a bit later than normal to begin their fall overseeding, the annual effort to replace summer Bermuda grass with winter Rye, especially in the Palm Springs area.

Waiting longer into the fall is one recomendation offered by the Desert Water Agency, which says it’s unable to change or modify it’s water emergency service plan under the state’s mandated stage 2 drought watering guidelines.

Therefore it’s not allowing any watering of new grass seed between the hours of 10 a.m and 5 p.m.

Desert Water Agency General Manager Dave Luker said, “No. Not as far as we’re concerned. We’ll send you a note. We’ll send you a letter.”

The California mandate requires local water agencies to follow their pre-approved plans to restrict water usage by customers.

You can find drought watering guides at:

http://www.dwa.org/restrictions

http://www.cvwd.org/conservation/flyers/2014_Drought_Watering_Guide_Infographic.pdf

The Desert Water Agency’s plan outlaws any landscape watering between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

That limitation could prove a challenging to anyone laying down Rye grass seed during the month of October, when the sun is still hot and the Coachella Valley often sees temperature spikes that can dry those seeds out preventing them from germinating.

Despite those concerns, Luker said there would be no watering hour exceptions allowed by his agency because of his concerns about a state fine.

Luker said, “I’m not going to do anything that would provoke a $10,000 dollar a day fine.”

In the east valley, the Coachella Valley Water District said it’s customers can water their lawns between 10 a.m. until sunset, during the normally restricted stage 2 hours, but only for 14 days after overseeding.

The C.V.W.D’s emergency plan makes an allowance for daytime watering during overseeding.

A spokesman, Dave Koller, said people should think twice about saving water when planting winter grass.

“You’ve still got those people who want that green grass when they come back from up north or even folks who live here and are used to seeing that green grass right away,” Koller said. “But we’re in a drought and we need to change our mind set,” he continued.

Koller admits though, many landscapers have customers to please and won’t be happy with waiting until mid October or even November to begin reseeding golf courses and customer’s lawns.

“We’re trying not to compromise the scalping and reseeding,” said Julio Castro of Desert Concepts Construction, Inc.

Castro is one of many landscapers who are trying to satisfy their customers who expect green winter grass the first of November while also trying to follow the water restriction rules.

Castro points to his work at the Palm Desert Resorter in Palm Desert where he’s cut early fall landscape watering by 40 percent.

Association President, Dee Peden, says the HOA’s water savings also means a money savings.

“If we can even save 10-percent of that,” said Peden, “that’s a pretty good chunk of money and something we’re looking to do.”

Castro planned to begin overseeding at Palm Desert Resorter October 6, to ensure green grass by November 1.

Green grass is vital to the Coachella Valley’s winter golf-based economy, and the local water agencies say their drought watering guides are good resources for those looking for a green winter lawn, while saving water.

Those guides recommend waiting to overseed until mid-October or November, inspect and repair sprinklers and avoid flooding lawn areas.

Luker said Desert Water hadn’t received any guidance from the state as to how to enforce the stage 2 water restrictions, so he’s encouraging people to do their best to follow, but not promising any heavy-handed enforcement to violators.

“This is not something we need to go out and pound on anyone and we have no intention of doing any of that,” said Luker. “But we are going to point it out.”

All of the Palm Springs public golf courses use reclaimed water, and are exempt from the drought watering rules.

All other courses in the Desert Water Agency service area will have to comply.

Water users in the Coachella Valley Water District service area will have more flexibility when it comes to watering during the overseeding process.

“As long as it’s green, nobody cares,” said Desert Resorters’ Peden, “Nobody cares.”