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Show before a building permit is issued. The plan must show water efficient irrigation systems as well as preferred drought tolerant plant materials. Within the landscape design guidelines, water conservation is emphasized. It states: " Landscape design pursuant to the requirements of this Chapter must recognize the climate limitations of the Salt Lake City area and the need for water conservation. While irrigation systems are required for certain landscape areas, and may be desirable for other applications, all irrigations systems shall be designed to minimize the use of water." ( Title 21A of the Salt Lake City Code, Landscaping and Buffers) Park City adopted a similar policy in 1990 and tied water conservation to variable seasonal rates, including outside irrigation. The ordinance also provided a rebate of up to 50 percent in areas where water conserving landscaping is installed. To date, no other Utah cities are known to have adopted such water conserving landscape ordinances. Efforts are underway by the Utah Division of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation to build coalitions, including government agencies, developers, homebuilders, realtors and the green industry to promote water- wise landscaping at demonstration gardens at model homes and developments. Water Audits As previously stated, the key to making water conserving landscapes work is irrigation system management. Excessive irrigation of landscapes can be a problem. By implementing more efficient irrigation practices, it is believed as much as 30 to 40 percent of water currently used in landscapes could be conserved and landscapes would retain the same or higher quality. When hot weather arrives, some managers of large areas of turf grass in Utah are achieving more efficient watering procedures with water audits. Turf water audit procedures include catch- can tests, analysis of field data, water usage records and the presentation of a written report to the site manager. Reports include scheduling recommendations, distribution uniformities, precipitation rates for all stations tested and an estimate of seasonal irrigation efficiency. Other recommendations include maintenance procedures ( i. e. straightening bent sprinkler risers) and management procedures ( i. e. use of repeat cycles and slow precipitation rates to prevent runoff from slopes and clay soils). In general, the most common problems identified during turf water audit procedures are mismatched precipitation rates and " stretched" spacings between sprinklers. Both problems contribute to non- uniform water applications, which result in " brown spots." Field personnel commonly lengthen irrigation set times in order to apply more water to these dry areas As a result, excess water is applied to other areas operated by the same controller station. So far, 60 water managers in Utah have received training and passed tests conducted by the Irrigation Association. Classes, scheduled throughout the year, are sponsored by the Division of Water Resources and other agencies or universities. Large sites targeted for audits include parks, golf courses, cemeteries, schools and university campuses. Large residential areas of turf grass can also benefit from water auditing. Much of the auditing process involves an exterior survey to establish irrigation practices and making recommendations for better water conservation management. Restricted Watering Because of the loss of water to evaporation on hot summer days, water officials recommend that lawn watering be restricted during daytime hours - typically from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. The estimated loss from evaporation during the day is 10 to 15 percent of applied water. The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District restricts use of secondary water between 20 |