Focus on Irrigation

by Meta Levin In April 2021, The Landscape Contractor magazine listened in on a conversation between ILCA Irrigation Committee Chair Alex Mayfield and National Irrigation Association Industry Development Director John Farner.* The hour-long discussion covered everything from the industry’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic to the future and much in between. This is the second of a three-part series of excerpts from that meeting.

Q. What is the role of the irrigation industry in dealing with climate change?

John Farner (JF): I think that our industry touches many components of our climate. Some are easy to see and some may not be easy to see. I’ll go to my third grader’s science class, where she has a hand drawn picture of the water cycle. In different water cycle photos, you see trees and grass and different plant material, the role they play in promoting that water cycle of evaporation, transpiration, rainfall and then back up. Promoting clean ground water. The landscape plays a significant role in promoting clean ground water. The easy thing to see is the role irrigation plays in keeping plants green — taking carbon dioxide in and releasing oxygen. The thirdgrade science class teaches us that’s the case. One of the main drivers of the greenhouse effect is amount of carbon dioxide in our air. Plants play a role in cleaning our air. We need to do a better job as an industry in promoting that. That only works if we make sure our plants are alive and thriving. Dead grass, dead trees, dead shrubs, do us no good in our environment. They need to be kept healthy and alive. The healthier they are, the better they do in promoting a healthy ecologic area. So, we look at soil health. Again, we look at the amount of moisture in the soil. Soil health is going to be key, whether it’s growing anything out of the ground, I don’t care if it’s an ear of corn or a blade of grass, soil health is going to be key

in looking at the amount of carbon that can be stored in the soil. So, you look at the role that efficient irrigation plays in that, in not having soil erode off; in making sure that is properly irrigated, not too much, not too little, but the right amount. It all comes back to efficient irrigation. The third component is this water/energy nexus that we have. The less water used on the landscape, while keeping the plants healthy, saves energy. The majority of water used nationally in landscape irrigation is treated, potable water. That is the gold, platinum standard of water in the United States. That has the fluoride; that has the energy footprint in there to not only treat the water, but to deliver it to your house, and we’re using that for landscape irrigation, because that other infrastructure doesn’t exist for alternative water sources in many cases. So, if we can use that, use it effiJohn Farner ciently, not waste any of it, we are saving energy and conserving water at the same time. Two of our resources that are always a focus. There are many more layers to this onion that I didn’t even mention, but those are some of the top ones. Alex Mayfield (AM): In Illinois that was one we battled with 10 years ago and I’ll use the City of Chicago as an example. Reclaimed water was one of the biggest components of their LEED points and the gold standard on their buildings. We were using that for irrigation. The Illinois EPA came in and said, that’s great, but it’s not treated. You’re going to get pathogens. You can’t spray it, you can’t do this and, if you do, you got to put in $50,000 worth of filters, just to use it. The buildings that put it in to get their points, have abandoned it, because it is not worth it, which is hurting our area. It was really going well there for a while, but then it hit a crashing halt. Alex Mayfield

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JF: This is where infrastructure is really going to play a key role. In the future we are going to need the infrastructure available to deliver those kinds of treated water, not to drinkable standards, but to standards that are good enough to irrigate, delivered to the site, rather than relying on site treatment systems, because that is not energy efficient, nor is it financially viable to do that. That is going to be way out there. That is something as we invest in more infrastructure – there are Civil War-era pipes running down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, wooden pipes that still deliver water. So, as we look at water infrastructure, we need to look at how we are using the water — right now it’s just this potable, treated water. How can we deliver an alternative water source – maybe start with the bigger irrigated areas, either the HOAs, the business parks, etcetera — so we don’t have to rely on that site treating it to meet health standards to apply to landscapes.

Q. More and more people are working from home. On the opposite side, there are large office parks and buildings, where there are few cars, few lights in the window. What effect is that going to have in the industry?

AM: We have office buildings and retail centers that are really struggling. They don’t have the funds to put into their landscape, therefore their irrigation, because they are thinking about downsizing. They’re getting ready to sell their buildings. I can only hope that if that happens and they start to shrink that those areas come back into a natural area or a park. I think we are going to see a lot of different types of buildings popping up with a lot of outside space being devoted for people who come to work only once or twice a week. It’s going to be a rough transition on the landscape end and that trickles down to us. If they have a building where there used to be 15,000 people coming to work and now they have 5,000, they are not going to put the resources into the landscape or irrigation.

JF: I think the key word there is transition. As a society, the year 2021 is going to be a year of transition from a year of pandemic to what will be a new normal. It’s a new normal of the role corporate office parks will play in our society and that cities will play in our society and our economy, and is it going to be primarily working from home. Is it going to be a hybrid of going into the office and back home? What are these office parks, these retail areas — going to look like? The good news is that our economy continues to do very well. Anecdotally, we are seeing retail areas being built, because the economy is still strong. That is one positive thing. To do that we need to see those landscapes to be healthy and living. With regard to office parks, we are seeing a lot of these centers are trying to make ends meet, but at the same time they don’t want to see their landscapes go into disrepair. So, while companies are feeling it, pennies are being pinched over there, at the same time our industries are still being expected to make sure that these centers don’t go into disrepair, that the landscape is viable, and when we go back to in person commerce, that these guys are ready to go and their centers are the ones being chosen, because it doesn’t look like they’ve been totally abandoned. But this is all speculative. I know that we haven’t seen the full affect of how our manufacturers, distributors and contractors are going to be impacted long term regarding this shift on our way of doing business, but after this year we’ll have a better idea. I’m hoping we find that middle ground where there is a role for these retail and office complexes, as well as folks working from home.