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W A T E R E N E R G Y i L I F E El W& RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES Board Memorandum P U B L I C U T I L I T I C s BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: September 2, 2011 ITEM NO: 7 SUBJECT: THE PRECISION LANDSCAPE IRRIGATION NOZZLE DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM UPDATE ISSUE: That the Board of Public Utilities receive this report on the Precision Landscape Irrigation Nozzle Distribution Program accomplishments for Fiscal Year 2010-11. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Public Utilities receive and file this report. BACKGROUND: In November 2009, the Govemor and State Legislature approved SBX7-7 mandating urban water suppliers to lower per capita water usage 20% by the year 2020. In response to this legislation, Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) increased offerings of water conservation programs to its customers. One of the new programs implemented was the Precision Landscape Irrigation Nozzle Program offered through the website, FreeSprinklerNozzles.com. On March 15, 2010, the City Council approved the multi-year Precision Landscape Irrigation Nozzle Program. The pilot program began July 1, 2010. Due to its overwhelming success, funding was depleted after three weeks and the pilot program ended July 21, 2010. In those three weeks, over 42,000 nozzles were distributed to approximately 1,500 locations in Riverside. City of Riverside residents and businesses who apply for the Program can use the www.FreeSprinklerNozzles.com website to obtain a voucher for free Precision Irrigation Nozzles. The Precision TM Series spray nozzles are proven to provide up to 20% water savings per head without adjusting controllers or run times and are a patented technology of The Toro Company, a Riverside- based international irrigation company. Western Municipal Water District (WMWD) is an active partner in the program, thus opening it to all residents and businesses within City of Riverside boundaries. Program caps are set at 25 nozzles per residential customer and 100 nozzles per commercial customer. After the success of the pilot program, the City Council approved a larger program budget on December 7, 2010. The program ran from March 1 through June 30, 2010 and distributed 54,356 nozzles to over 1,900 different Riverside sites. RPU and WMWD also allowed neighboring agencies access to the online voucher tool created to administer the program resulting in eight additional cities/agencies participating. Participating agencies included: the City of Corona; Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District; the City of Chino; the City of Chino Hills; Cucamonga Valley Water District; Monte Vista Water District; the City of Ontario; and the City of Upland, As a result of this partnership, over 129,000 nozzles were distributed in four months. The Fiscal Year 2010-11 results for the Precision Landscape Irrigation Nozzle Program are 89,955 nozzles distributed to RPU customers at a cost of $105,000 (see Attachment 1). RPU staff leveraged over $65,000 in funding from WMWD to make the program extremely cost effective. The estimated water savings over the next five years for the 89,955 nozzles is over 625 million gallons of water.