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Water Conservation
New Landscape Lawn Exchange Program
On May 4, 2023, the Kaysville City Council approved an ordinance which allows Kaysville residents to be able to participate in the "Landscape Lawn Exchange" program with Weber Basin Water Conservancy District (WBWCD). This was previously known as the "Flip Your Strip" program. Under this lawn replacement program, lawn areas anywhere in your yard can be removed and replaced with low-water landscaping to qualify for an incentive. This is not a rebate program, but rather an incentive to assist you in the cost of re-landscaping to be more water efficient.
Program participants will apply for the program using the Utah Water Savers Website (www.utahsavers.com). The application must be completed in full. WBWCD staff will review applications as they come in to approve participation in the program. Application must be approved before removing the lawn and starting the program.
For more information about the program, and to review the process and requirements, visit: https://weberbasin.com/Conservation/Rebates.
Kaysville City Water Conservation & Water Quality Efforts
Like other local State entities, Kaysville City is concerned with balancing the demands of a water shortage with those of water quality and safe drinking standards. Each year as summer temperatures begin to increase, City staff open and flush fire hydrants in strategic locations to help increase circulation and to keep chlorine concentrations at the desired levels. On a nearly daily basis, City staff are monitoring water quality by collecting samples, and analyzing temperatures and chlorine levels, amongst other things.
While City staff will be deploying conservation measures and decreasing water usage at many of our facilities, there are some locations where operations (including irrigation) may appear contradictory to published recommendations. We wanted to point these out ahead of time to explain, as these operations are being conducted deliberately to assist with water quality efforts. These operations include:
- Regular irrigation schedules at Angel Street Soccer Complex and Pioneer Park. While irrigation is being cut back significantly at most City facilities and venues, these two locations will continue irrigating on normal schedules. These parks are unique in that the Kaysville City Water Department has installed specialized protective equipment in conjunction with flow monitoring equipment to convert these parks from secondary water for irrigation to culinary water being used for irrigation. In Kaysville City, unless you have express written consent from Kaysville City, the use of drinking water in irrigation systems is strictly prohibited. These two Parks are located near some of our strategic hydrant flushing sites, and to save staff time spent opening/monitoring hydrants and to try and get beneficial use from water that would otherwise be dumped out into the street, the decision was made two years ago to make this change.
- Seeding and irrigating the new Trappers Field South Park. While new landscaping at City facilities and venues is being delayed until next year, this new park is being planted and irrigated at the request of the Kaysville City Water Department. This location also has specialized protective equipment and flow monitoring equipment to allow staff to use culinary water to irrigate this field. While we didn’t originally intend to plant this park in 2022, this park is also located at an important strategic flushing site, and the alternative is significant staff time spent flushing hydrants and significant volumes of water dumped in the street. The watering of the three parks mentioned above are critical parts of Kaysville City water quality efforts.
- Limited operation of the Heritage Park Splash Pad. While the splash pad may not seem like a critical water quality, each year, its operation also assists with providing automated circulation of water with more beneficial use of the culinary water being discharged. At the Splash Pad, all of the discharged water is recycled in the secondary irrigation system, and like the parks above, this flushing helps to reduce the amount of water needing to be discharged from fire hydrants each summer. The Splash Pad will have reduced hours and days of operations for 2022.
- Fire hydrant flushing. While we have worked on strategically converting some City facilities culinary irrigation, coordinating with construction crews to utilize flushed water and other efforts to cut down on flushing, we will always have at least periodic needs to flush fire hydrants. Aside from water quality, this helps to verify the proper function of hydrants for emergencies, but the practice will likely never be completely eliminated.
While we acknowledge that some may see the above uses as wasteful or careless, they are carefully determined approaches that have been established to serve the demands of water quality and the City as a whole. The drought conditions we are currently facing are unprecedented and will require all of us to work together, not just within Kaysville, but throughout the County and State. If you have questions, you can contact Kaysville Public Works at 801-544-8112.