More than 400 Florida residents have signed up for a free irrigation system evaluation, but despite almost 200 St. Lucie, Fla., residents on the waiting list, the service will be canceled at the end of the month.
In April, the South Florida Water Management District extolled the virtues of the eight mobile irrigation labs designed to help people conserve water and urged the public to sign on, but facing hard budget decisions six months later, funding will now be diverted to other programs.
The urban labs, funded primarily by the district at an annual cost of $450,000 and operated under local soil and water conservation districts, provide a free analysis of residential, condominium and commercial irrigation systems throughout the district's 16-county area. This year rechnicians completed 180 evaluations, including three condominium complexes and two gated communities. There are 40 more scheduled.
Last year, the district estimated a savings of 500 million gallons of water through the mobile lab program, with 17.5 million conserved in St. Lucie county and 137 million gallons conserved in Martin, according to district records.
However, Mark Elsner, the district's director of water supply implementation, said officials are feeling the same budget pinch as other Florida agencies during a slow economy and in the wake of property tax reform.
"We've had to prioritize, and through prioritizing we are not providing the funding for the mobile labs," Elsner said. "This (program) is a great service, but the water savings is difficult to document."
The program depends upon property owners to follow through with mobile lab's recommendations, so results can be difficult to assess, he said.
Jack Tanner, chairman of Lee County's soil and water conservation district, said his board discontinued the mobile labs in early 2007 because they were too costly and results were hard to track.
"It's just an evaluation," Tanner said. "Nothing is done to the system. They're not cost effective, and they don't accomplish anything."
Tanner, who said he hopes to see the program eliminated throughout Florida, said private contractors could perform essentially the same service for homeowners at a significant savings over the $324.44 currently charged by St. Lucie's mobile lab operators to the district for the evaluations.
Local mobile lab operators, however, take issue with the budget decision and say it leaves residents and small businesses in the lurch if the program is cancelled on Sept. 30.
In St. Lucie County, mobile lab appointments are scheduled through December with almost 200 additional requests on the waiting list for next year, said Leona Yates of the St. Lucie Soil and Water Conservation District.
"I feel really bad for the residents who've been waiting for this," Yates said. "But given the current situation, we're just not sure what to do."
St. Lucie mobile lab operator Garry Bailey said including condominium and gated community units, his lab has already directly affected 1,010 residents this year, with another four condos and one gated community requesting the service.
"These are tax-paying people," Bailey said. "They pay taxes to the district." Bailey estimates that the St. Lucie service has saved nearly 10.3 gallons of water this year.
However, those estimates are just that - estimates, Tanner said.
"They (mobile labs) don't make any repairs. They just calculate how much water you will save if you take their recommendations," Tanner said.
Bailey, however, said one local condominium that used the service last year has saved over $10,000 to date on its water bill.
"We check the output of every zone, make recommendations to them on how to improve their systems. We also have old sprinklers to explain visually how to correct problems," he said. In Martin County, mobile lab operator Charlie Lambert completed evaluations for the final quarter of his contract and plans to continue until the money runs out.
"We're going to continue as long as we can and keep looking for other sources of funding," Lambert said. Yates said operators are looking to local municipal water authorities to assist with mobile lab funding.
With the mobile irrigation lab program ending, the South Florida Water Management District is focusing its effort on other projects:
-The district is working on a year-round, two-day-per-week irrigation restriction for residential and commercial landscaping. The proposal has been under review for nine months and is slated for approval in October.
-The district is funneling just more than $1 million into 44 conservation projects throughout the district, known collectively as the Water Savings Incentive Program. Locally, Stuart will receive $33,837 for three conservation programs, with $10,350 going to Port St. Lucie.