Public Works staff at the City of Concord recently announced that they are exceeding the Contra Costa Water District’s 15 percent target for water reduction during the drought.
The City is using 37 percent less water than the historical baseline set by CCWD.
“While we are happy that we are exceeding the CCWD target, that doesn’t mean that we will stop looking for ways to conserve water,” said Justin Ezell, Public Works Director. “We know residents are trying their best to meet the target, and we will do our part to continue to look for new ways to reduce the City’s water usage.”
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The City has developed a Drought Reduction Strategy, which was presented to the City Council on June 10. For many years, the City has followed responsible water management principles and practices.
Some of these practices include: inefficient fixtures in public buildings are routinely replaced with efficient ones; landscape irrigation controllers are replaced with ones that automatically adjust to real-time weather data; and water wasting medians and other landscape areas are reconstructed using plantings which have lower water needs.
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More recently, staff has worked to replace fixtures in City-owned building with water-smart technology, inspected lines so that water leaks are identified and repaired quickly, retrofit several medians in the downtown area to use recycled water, and stopped replanting some street medians until the drought has ended.
Residents are encouraged to report broken sprinkler heads in parks or medians by calling the Public Works Department at (925) 671-3444.
All other water concerns including water waste at commercial and residential properties should be routed to the Contra Costa Water District (925) 688-8000.
The City encourages residents to visit the CCWD website, http://www.ccwater.com/, where they will find information about how to replace a lawn with drought-tolerant garden, get rebates, coupons or free items to assist them in saving water, and sign up for a free home water use survey.
For more information about the City’s Drought Reduction Strategy, contact Public Works Director Justin Ezell, (925) 671- 3231.
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