Irrigation upgrades improve efficiency

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Lakewood Ranch residents can expect to see improvements in common-area irrigation and landscaping, as the Lakewood Ranch Town Hall Operations Department continues its efforts to update Lakewood Ranch’s irrigation system.

Town Hall staff members are working to replace old irrigation controllers and valves with newer equipment that will allow the district to reduce overall water usage, make sidewalks more usable during evening hours, and reduce the amount of manual labor required for managing water, including programming and scheduling.

“System improvements will conserve water, save money and decrease watering during peak traffic hours,” Lakewood Ranch Town Hall Operations Director Ryan Heise said. “Each of our (community development) district boards has done a great job in recognizing the need and benefits of funding a program for irrigation enhancements in the common areas.”

Heise said the operations team began looking into replacing portions of the irrigation systems in Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5, when Paul Chetlain, maintenance manager, joined the operations team more than two years ago.

At that time, he and Heise immediately began looking at the district’s irrigation control system, because it already was showing signs of failure.

“That was a huge priority,” Heise said of making improvements to the system. “If the controllers aren’t functioning properly, not only do you have deteriorating landscape, but you also have residents (who are frustrated with sprinklers running too much, etc.).

“We knew we needed to do something different,” he said. “We knew we had so much infrastructure in place, we couldn’t totally abandon our existing system, and we knew we couldn’t do everything at once because of budget limitations.”

After researching options and testing pilot products, the operations team decided to convert the district’s Hunter Genesis controllers, which are targeted for the golf course industry, to a Tucor product. The new controllers will provide inputs for environmental sensors and allow more flexibility in programming watering schedules. Additionally, the new technology has a lower hardware footprint, meaning it has fewer parts — about two compared to 19 — that could fail and need replacement.

Heise said each time an old Hunter Genesis controller fails, it costs between $57 and $1,267 to repair.
“This was weekly,” he said. “We were constantly returning to the controllers and repairing similar components over again, especially during summer lightning events.”

Additionally, the CDDs had about 20 to 24 faceplate failures annually, with repairs costing $250 per incident.

The districts also are replacing about 120 Uniks devices, which are manually programmed, individual battery-operated valves used in cul-de-sacs and similar areas, with a product by WaterOptimizer, a subsidiary of Tampa-based King Engineering. The new product uses wireless communication to link each of the valves into a networked system, thus giving Town Hall staff the ability to program all the valves using internet-based software. It also allows for the use of soil moisture sensor inputs so irrigation can automatically turn off during rain events, for example.

The Operations department tested the new equipment in Edgewater Pointe and, after seeing success, will begin installations throughout the rest of Edgewater, as well as in portions of CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Each district has budgeted $10,000 toward the improvements in 2012, and Heise said he will recommend the CDDs add more in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, so improvements to irrigation system can be completed more quickly. Improvements currently are slated to continue over the next several years.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

PRESSURE POINT
Lakewood Ranch Town Hall also is working to solve problems with the community’s irrigation system, because many neighborhoods have experienced problems with water pressure over the years.

Ryan Heise, director of operations for Town Hall, said preliminary findings of a study being conducted by irrigation consultant Azad Shah show the Ranch’s infrastructure is sufficient and changes to the watering schedule likely can fix water pressure and other problems.

“That’s most likely a source issue,” Heise said. “(Water provider Braden River Utilities) really is the one responsible for determining why they have pressure issues. We’re working with them on that.”