Dear Mr. Claus: I hope this letter finds you, Mrs. Claus, the elves and Reindeer doing real well. I trust you are all preparing for a busy season crafting toys, working on travel logistics and making wishes come true. (And I thought I had a tough job). I was a little reluctant to write this letter because I have reviewed a few of the extensive and detailed list of demands from some of the 9 year olds in my neighborhood. But Santa, (I do hope it is okay I call you Santa) what I am asking for is much more important than bicycles and Barbies. My wish list deals with saving water and let’s face it; you have some skin in the game. The North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. We want to make sure that ice stays ice and we don’t have to consult with some of the house boat makers on plans for a floating Santa’s workshop. So in the spirit of water management for both the North Pole and all the boys and girls, I have a few items I would like for Christmas:
The list for Santa Claus
- A wireless irrigation valve that communicates with the controller through a wifi network. And if you have some spare time, the valve should tweet the run times to a #hashtag we could all follow on Twitter
- For all those people who say you can have my turf when you pry it from my cold dead hands…at least water this turf with drip irrigation. Most people will save 50% of the water they use
- Incentives for agriculture to switch from flood irrigation to micro irrigation. $350 million in rebates for turf conversions for Southern California landscapes was great. We need more of that and we need a lot more incentives to get growers to move to micro irrigation. If agriculture is using 80% of the water lets give these smart businessmen a reason to change. If it makes good financial sense they will make a move
- How about advanced flow management in a reasonably priced smart controller. Smart controllers need the ability to talk to each other so we can manage flow with multiple controllers running on the same main. I see many looped irrigation systems unable to take advantage of flow control because the controllers do not communicate with each other
- Water management analytics from my smart controller. I need a simple report from my smart controller telling me how much water I used during a specific time compared to the same specific time of day, month, or year earlier. This report also has to integrate ET data so I can see if I am using more water due to increased ET. It would be great if I could create another report giving me this data compared to a water budget. It would be even better if I could export this report to a pdf and easily email it to my customers
- An alert from my smart controller telling me a few days before I am going into another water pricing tier
- A wireless soil moisture sensor that goes around corners and connects to most controllers
- Real time water use reports delivered to my smart phone. This would include indoor and outdoor water use
- A website that shows me water pricing across the nation for specific cities and water agencies
- A website showing available rebates for water saving irrigation products
Thanks Santa Claus for taking time to review the list. Merry Christmas to all the manufacturers, entrepreneurs, inventors, product managers of irrigation equipment and kickstarter’s. Merry Christmas and thank you to the rest of you who have been working diligently all year to make a difference saving water. Lets make 2016 our best year for conserving water ever.
