'Water Matters' Hits The Airwaves

'Water Matters' the half-hour television special that discusses local water issues and ways to save water, is now on the air.

Co-sponsored by CCWD, the Marin Water District and the Sonoma County Water Agency, the program discusses local water issues and ways you can save water at home.

The CCWD segment includes a portion on Los Vaqueros, what's involved with a CCWD home water survey, and living with a drought resistant front and back yard.

So take a look at the CCWD section below, or see the entire half hour show when it airs again:




Here's the schedule for the remaining showings:

Friday, July 10: 11 a.m.
Sunday, July 12: 9:30 a.m.
Sunday, July 19: 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 25: 11 a.m.
Sunday, September 13 9 p.m. (post NFL game)


Keep An Eye On Your Irrigation Timer

One of our home water surveyors says she's noticing a trend in many homes that have gardeners taking care of the maintenance of the yard.

The gardeners are putting too much water on the lawn.

She said one home with a very large yard had the timers for the lawns set for three 12-minute cycles, every night of the week. With multiple stations, this home was wasting thousands of gallons of water every week.

With pop-up spray sprinklers, CCWD recommends that at the height of summer -- July when sunny days are longest and temperatures the hottest -- that the most you water a lawn is four days per week and three cycles of six-minutes per cycle. We recommend you start your cycles at around three or 4 a.m. and stop watering by 8 a.m. when evaporation and windy weather can literally steal the water you intended for your lawn, trees and shrubs.

That will keep your lawn alive, encourage deep root growth, save water and keep you closer to your water budget.

So have a conversation with your gardener and check your timer to make sure you're not wasting water.

The Cost of Leaky Faucets

A National Geographic publication titled "Water for Tomorrow" estimates that leaky faucets are costing American households more than 1 trillion gallons of water per year.

If you have a leaky faucet that loses 60 drops of water per minute, you'll waste nearly 6.4 gallons of water per day or 192 gallons of water per month. That could be enough to send you over your water budget.

Water Conservation Kiosks At New Locations

We moved our Water Conservation Information kiosks to new locations. You can now see them at the Ygnacio Valley and Pittsburg libraries. Ask us a question, and we'll send you the answer via e-mail.