Sacramento State Slashing Water Use While School's Out

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento State staffers are busy during the summer break making the campus water-wise with upgrades it says go beyond a required 25 percent reduction.

Taking a walk through the campus, it's not hard to notice the brown grass.

"We're trying not to kill all the grass, but a lot of it's in a kind of hibernation mode," said Paul Serafimidis. "In some areas we're letting the grass go completely."

The director of sustainability and plant operations on the campus says grounds crews have shut down more than 750 sprinkler heads around campus, saving 2.4 million gallons of water a year. The sprinklers that are in use are now controlled remotely, instead of crews having to manually set timers on each of the 68 controllers.

"There's so many of them," he said. "We can schedule them out through the week. you know, make sure they're not overlapping too much."

Sacramento State is also replacing some wide-spraying sprinklers with simple bubblers to keep trees alive.

"We're putting wood chips and other types of mulch around the trees to kind of hold that water in," he said.

Drought-tolerant plants, patches of grass and thirsty plants have been ripped out and either replaced with more drought-tolerant plants, or rocks.

Inside, every bathroom on campus is getting water-wise upgrades, including new toilets, urinal flush valves and aerators.

At the pool, lifeguards are now using a new motorized pool cover.

"If you have it covered, less of that heat escapes. plus you save water from evaporation. so it's a combination benefit that you get out of that," he said.

The fountain in front of the library is dry this summer. Even though it recirculates water, it's a symbol of the change in California's water use.