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Drought restrictions may affect schools
that need to irrigate athletic fields in order to maintain safety.
Schools must have their current annual
irrigation audit on file with SAWS before any variance will
be considered.
There are two options for requesting a variance to athletic field
watering restrictions for safety reasons:
Basic Plan Guidelines
If a variance is requested and granted under the basic plan:
- Each athletic field may be watered once a week between midnight
and 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. to midnight.
- For campuses with multiple fields, each field may be irrigated on a separate day if time and water pressure does not allow for irrigation of all fields on a single day. On the application please indicate the day of the week each field will be watered.
For example:
Monday– Football Field No. 1
Wednesday – Football Field No. 2
Thursday – Baseball Field
Friday – Soccer Field
- If a single field is too large to be irrigated in a single day you may split the field and water half on one day and half on the other.
- Hand watering, drip irrigation or soaker hoses are allowed
every day during the above times.
Advanced Plan Guidelines
A variance granted under the advanced plan allows irrigation of
a single field three times a week for 40 minutes.
- Your proposed irrigation schedule must be submitted in writing.
- Additional days for irrigating a single field will be granted
upon completion of an Athletic Field Irrigation Audit.
- Results of the audit are to be included with the variance
request.
The primary goal of the irrigation audit is to establish the precipitation
rate — the amount of water distributed through an irrigation
system over a certain amount of time — and to identify distribution
uniformity — how evenly the water is being distributed
across the field.
This is done by placing a number of “catch-cans” out
in the field, running the system for a specific amount of time
and looking at how much water (in inches) ends up in the bottom
of the cans. Through this process you will be able to establish
how long you need to run the system to apply a certain amount
of water. This may also help you identify dry spots so you can
adjust the system accordingly.
SAWS has a limited number of “catch-cans” available
to check out to school districts.
Additional resources for athletic field irrigation audits can
be found on Texas A&M University's AggieTurf
Web site.
If you have questions please call
SAWS Conservation at (210) 704-SAVE.
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