Watering exception sought for city parks
| • | Several big water users report usage cutbacks |
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The city Department of Parks and Recreation voluntarily cut water use nearly in half, but it wants the Honolulu Board of Water Supply to exempt it from sticking to a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday watering schedule.
Parks officials responded immediately to a request in June to conserve, rescheduling watering to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
"We used to have a harder time getting the parks guys to work with us," said water board spokeswoman Denise DeCosta. "They used to think that because sugar was gone, there was lots of water. But they have come around and made a good faith effort to deal with water waste."
But watering on Sundays presents problems with staffing and overtime, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. If the board is inflexible about the schedule, the city would further limit watering to Tuesdays and Thursdays, she said.
Bill Balfour, director of parks and recreation, planned to meet yesterday with Clifford Jamile, the board's manager and chief engineer, to discuss the schedule.
An exemption might confuse the public and weaken the conservation effort, according to DeCosta, who said: "If you make exceptions, it messes it all up and it undermines the effectiveness of it."
Last weekend, the board asked the public to limit lawn watering to Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, hoping for a 10 percent reduction in consumption. This followed a request in June to O'ahu's 100 biggest users, with no set schedule recommended at the time.
With the exception of several showpiece parks, the rationing will likely mean browner playing fields across O'ahu. The city will not drastically reduce irrigation at Kapi'olani and Ala Moana parks because of their proximity to tourist-oriented Waikiki, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said.
And two of the island's busy sports parks — the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Complex and Central O'ahu Regional Park in Waipahu — do not tap into island wells for irrigation, Costa said. They should remain green because one draws from a stream and the other uses recycled, non-drinking water.
The city has 6,417 acres of parks, botanical gardens and large medial strips. Eighty percent of them require watering and most of those do not have automated systems.
