<font color=blue>INDUSTRY BUZZ</font> Play by the Rules

Recently, I spent some time with a close friend of mine who enlightened me about the subject of rules.  He explained a situation in which his son and daughter were playing in his back yard. They had a football and one would lie on the ground and throw it, the other would have to grab the ball and run past a line to score.  He indicated that the kids spent at least twenty minutes developing a set of rules to play by. 

The reason for this was to make the game fair to both of them. “Without the rules," he explained, “someone could be taken advantage of and that would not be fair.”  He further indicated that if the rules become unfair, the kids took a time out to change them.

Since my friend is also an irrigation contractor, the conversation turned to something we could both understand. His irrigation contracting business is located in my home state of Michigan. In Michigan, the irrigation profession is basically unregulated downstream of the backflow prevention device. This is the case in much of the country. The parallel is this: without rules, someone may be taken advantage of.  When an irrigation consumer is taken advantage of, the entire industry suffers along with water supplies.

We may not like the idea of having rules to play by, especially if they are someone else’s rules. The fact is, as time passes and the irrigation industry is faced with increased scrutiny due to water supply-side issues. Without a doubt, we are going to see an increase in the proliferation of regulation. The choice we have to make is whether or not we want to spend the time up front in the process to participate and make the rules sensible for all stakeholders, or sit back and wait for someone else to tell us how to carry out our occupation. 

The unfortunate thing is that many people do not see value in watering the landscape and this is reflected in the outcome of many regulations. That is why all stakeholders must participate in any rules process.

We can learn a lot from watching our kids play. Children seem to have an overwhelming sense of justice. When they make up a game, the first thing they do is make up the rules to keep the game fair. If someone feels the game isn’t fair, they change the rules. 

The irrigation industry has been engaged in its game for some time now and in many cases, never took the time to make up rules to keep it fair. The Irrigation Association is willing to support the rule-making process in areas where our members believe it is necessary. IA maintains draft legislation and support materials to facilitate the processes of licensing, certification, moisture sensing technology and water use ordinance guidelines. 

The author is the IA’s State and Affiliate Relations Director. For more information, e-mail andy@irrigation.org.