If you're a Hillsborough County homeowner with a high water bill, your sprinklers could be to blame.
But there are county irrigation specialists who work with residents to help get their systems back on track.
Will Stone is with the county extension office. He says a lot of people overuse their sprinklers, and they also easily break without them knowing.
"It becomes a geyser,” Stone said. “And it's using gallons and gallons per minute, and you’re running zones for upwards of 45 minutes to an hour. And that's just water going down the drain. It's just money being wasted unnecessarily."
David Glicksburg, an environmental manager with the county, said over-watering do more harm than good, apart from wasting water.
“It can cause [your lawn] to actually die,” Glicksburg said. “You can get fungus and whatnot. So a lot of people think that more is better, and in the case of watering your lawn, it's not."
That's where Stone comes in. He says anyone in Hillsborough can call him to evaluate their irrigation system and optimize it. The process can take as little as 20 minutes.
The irrigation your lawn needs depends on many different factors.
“It depends on the kind of turf, how much turf you have, the kind of soil, how low-lying the turf is,” Stone said. “It depends on if there's turf at all. The trick to using less water is to have less grass, or just simply how much sun your lawn gets.”
Stone says doing this can save people money, and save the community water.
"Drinkable water is a commodity. It's something we should care about. And to waste it is, you know, it's just unnecessary."
The process can be done over the phone, in-person ... for free.
He says homeowners should check their irrigation systems at least once per season.
You can go to the county’s website to find contact information for Stone, figure out your watering days, and get advice on your irrigation system.
