Ankeny water ban

AgronAlum

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Jul 12, 2014
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Anecdotal, but I see businesses like HyVee watering their grass all the time. Morning, noon, night, during the rain, etc.

I have a system that I use sparingly (haven't turned it on this year) but I always water super early in the morning. Most effective use of watering, without causing disease issues.

Which is crazy because the irrigation control systems that adjust for weather are not very expensive. Like dirt cheap relatively speaking.
 

mschmitty17

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Mar 16, 2017
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I moved into a new house a few years ago, they installed the sod in mid Aug, it took a lot of water the first few weeks to keep it alive, but then sept hit and it just went nuts. Aug seems to be the perfect time for it, so if you can, hold off till then.
Got mine installed in June 3 years ago and it was a terrible (and expensive) experience. Had to replace it several times and there are some areas that still look like ****. F***in Hubbell.
 

isucy86

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Apr 13, 2006
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I work in local government and this did escalate quickly. There are some FAQs out there online that get into the details.

The basics are that Central Iowa Water Works enacted their Stage 3 water shortage plan. Stage 3 is a ban on irrigation. This is limited to watering of lawns. Newly installed sod and grass is exempt at this time but its asked the watering is cut back to the minimum to ensure the sod survives. New sod shouldn't be laid until the Stage 3 is lifted.

No other conservation efforts are required at this time, but people can do voluntary stuff to help like watering plants less, shorter showers, etc.

Somebody else mentioned boiling and that shouldn't be done as it actually increases the nitrate levels in the water. If you're particularly concerned about nitrate levels right now, bottled water is probably the answer for you even though the drinking water is currently safe.

Remember this mantra from when I lived in Colorado 20 years ago. If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.:cool:
 

cycloneG

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Mar 7, 2007
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Off the grid
So fill your pool with beer. Duh
beerfest-landfill.gif
 

baller21

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Mar 15, 2009
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I live next to a pond so I can pump water out of that if I want. I don’t because I don’t give a **** about having green grass but I have multiple neighbors that do it.
 

Cyientist

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Aug 18, 2013
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If anyone is interested in monitoring on their own.... Des Moines Water Works has an advanced water quality data page that you can search out the different source water contaminant levels as well as their finished product levels.

DMWW Water Quality Data

Fleur Drive Drive treatment plant is what pumps out the most water (3x as much as McMullen and 7x as much as Saylorville). The data seems to be posted about 48 hours after the date, so we don't know yesterday or today's level. I'm curious to what the levels were yesterday that sparked the upgrade conservation warning as the finished product N levels on Wednesday were high (8.64 mg/L) but not the highest this year or even last year.

I do think it is strange how much higher the DMWW testing shows the Raccoon River (near Water Works) then what the USGS gauge at Van Meter is showing. For example the Raccoon at Water Works tested at 18.95 on Wednesday but the gauge at Van Meter was just over 16 mg/L. The only major tributary after the Van Meter gauge is Walnut Creek which is mainly the NW metro now. Even if it was 100% row crops I wouldn't expect it to have the load to increase the concentration by about 2.5 mg/L with the size of the Raccoon there without a major isolated storm event. For clarification, I'm not a lawn/golf course fertilizer is the problem person. There is almost zero nitrogen leaching away instead of being used by the turf right now, so I'm really surprised by that increase.

Maybe USGS needs to recalibrate. You can use the Iowa Water Quality Information System (on its now shoestring budget) to quickly jump around the real time sensors if you want to take a look.

The good news is we are tailing down slowly. The bad news is next week could bring more loading.
 
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Cyismymonkey

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Jan 1, 2013
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If only we could figure out where these cancer-causing nitrates are coming from in this state that has the highest rates of new cancer diagnosis in the country. I guess it will have to remain a mystery. We're all gonna die anyways.
Really quite a coincidence don’t ya think?
 

simply1

Rec Center HOF
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Jun 10, 2009
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If anyone is interested in monitoring on their own.... Des Moines Water Works has an advanced water quality data page that you can search out the different source water contaminant levels as well as their finished product levels.

DMWW Water Quality Data

Fleur Drive Drive treatment plant is what pumps out the most water (3x as much as McMullen and 7x as much as Saylorville). The data seems to be posted about 48 hours after the date, so we don't know yesterday or today's level. I'm curious to what the levels were yesterday that sparked the upgrade conservation warning as the finished product N levels on Wednesday were high (8.64 mg/L) but not the highest this year or even last year.

I do think it is strange how much higher the DMWW testing shows the Raccoon River (near Water Works) then what the USGS gauge at Van Meter is showing. For example the Raccoon at Water Works tested at 18.95 on Wednesday but the gauge at Van Meter was just over 16 mg/L. The only major tributary after the Van Meter gauge is Walnut Creek which is mainly the NW metro now. Even if it was 100% row crops I wouldn't expect it to have the load to increase the concentration by about 2.5 mg/L with the size of the Raccoon there without a major isolated storm event. For clarification, I'm not a lawn/golf course fertilizer is the problem person. There is almost zero nitrogen leaching away instead of being used by the turf right now, so I'm really surprised by that increase.

Maybe USGS needs to recalibrate. You can use the Iowa Water Quality Information System (on its now shoestring budget) to quickly jump around the real time sensors if you want to take a look.

The good news is we are tailing down slowly. The bad news is next week could bring more loading.
Seems like not measuring it would clear all this right up.
 
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