Maple Grove’s Water Conservation Efforts Aim To Help Everyone
Maple Grove public works officials want everyone to keep in mind the city’s on-going water conservation efforts, especially during higher-use time periods like the middle of summer.
“Our average daily production rate is about 10 million gallons per day,” said Utility Operations Engineer Jay Murzyn. “That’s across the year. In any given typical year, that goes up about two times, two and a half times, so we’re up into the low twenties (on average during the summer months) That is almost entirely due to irrigation purposes.”
The City of Maple Grove first instituted permanent water restrictions in 2022.
In 2022, the city first enacted water use restrictions, including no watering on any day of the year between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
“Those are the times when it’s the hottest, and the water isn’t giving your yard the benefit you think it’s getting,” said Murzyn. “The reality is you really don’t need more than an inch of water on your yard per week.”
The other main city restriction is the odd/even watering pattern; if your address is an odd number, you can only water during the desginated times on odd-numbered days of the month.
“We’re trying to manage against poor stewardship,” said Murzyn.
The city is also offering its water efficiency rebate program, which says the city will offer a rebate of 75% of the price of EPA-approved home sprinkler system components, including controllers that can, via the internet, take in real-time weather info and not water the lawn when it’s raining or after it has just rained, even if the homeowner has programmed it to do so. Murzyn said the rebate comes in the form of a credit to the resident’s city utility bill. He said so far, more than 200 people have participated.
“We’ve seen some results. We’re not going to go from 25 million gallon days down to 15 million gallon days, unless it’s weather-related, but still, it makes an impact,” he said.
