City’s sprinklers go high-tech Advanced system to water lawns has been installed at pair of area locations
To conserve water while keeping lawns green and vibrant, City Hall recently installed a weather station at Crescent Bay Park to measure wind speed, humidity, solar radiation and temperature. Data collected is stored in a computer which regulates the run times of different irrigation systems throughout the city.
The goal is to accurately measure evapotranspiration to.01 of an inch. The weather station was made by Rain Master, a Simi-Valley based company founded in 1981.
“It will automatically change the run time of the sprinklers depending on weather,” said Patrick Balfe, parks operations supervisor.“When its cold, we run less water. When it’s hot, we run a little bit more.”
Another weather monitoring station was installed in Clover Park in 2004, Balfe said. The cost for both is around $11,000. The two were placed at opposite ends of the city to better measure the change in micro-climates in Santa Monica.
“I don’t think we’ll need any more,” Balfe said “We’ve basically got two micro-climates, one from the beach inward to about Lincoln (Boulevard) and then Lincoln east.”
Balfe wasn’t sure how much water has been saved since the installation of the two stations, which are beige-colored with a small, black, pinwheel-like structure on top that spins in the breeze.
“We really don’t have the system fully up and running yet,” Balfe said. “We are still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 6, 2007. Read the original PDF.