Program your controller or timer to water in cycles to allow water to soak into the ground.
Watering two (2) days a week should be sufficient during most of the summer. If needed, water a third (3rd) day during extreme heat or dry periods. Water trees and shrubs as needed, but not between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Shrubs and perennials need half as much water as lawns.

There are no assigned watering days, but never water a zone more than three (3) days a week. Remember, no watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Minutes to water per zone (for lawns, based on three days per week)

Here are some simple tips for outdoor watering to help you use only what you need.

1. Check soil moisture before you water.
Your lawn may not be as thirsty as you think. Tip: Walk across your lawn. Look back for footprints. If you don’t see any, your lawn doesn’t need water.

2. Change the time setting on your automatic controller each month.
Once a month, adjust the clock on your irrigation system to the correct watering times (see chart). As you get to know your landscape needs, try shaving two minutes off a few zones and save even more water. You can maintain a healthy lawn with less water, and adjusting the watering times based on seasonal weather conditions helps you use only what you need.

3. Cycle water: 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off.
Regulate your water usage with an inexpensive, easy-to-use hose timer. Install the timer between the spigot and the hose. Some timers allow cyclical watering — 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off — so that water penetrates the soil, creating a healthier lawn with less water. For clay soils and slopes, eliminate runoff by applying water for a short time, such as 5 minutes, allowing water to soak in. Repeat this cycle until soil is saturated, never longer than 30 minutes.

4. Don’t water during rain or strong winds.
If you have an automatic sprinkler system, consider installing a rainfall sensor to prevent your system from watering in the rain. Denver Water offers rebates worth $25 to $50 for these devices. Wind is an enemy of spray irrigation. It speeds evaporation, and water blows away from intended landscapes. Wait for winds to die down.

5. Add a weather-based smart controller to your irrigation system — especially if you have a large lot.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a measure of water lost from soil by evaporation and transpiration (usage by plants). A weather-based smart controller, or ET controller, can be added to your system so watering is based on ET readings. By taking into account air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind and natural rainfall, an ET controller calculates the degree of evapotranspiration and allocates the proper amount of water for your lawn.

Denver Water offers a rebate  for such devices. Contact your irrigation or landscape service provider to help with purchase and installation. For more information go to http://denverwater.org/Conservation/Rebates/

Please be aware that our sanitary sewer system is designed to handle only three types of waste products: 

• Water
• Human body waste
• Toilet paper

We are asking that residents do not use their toilets as trash cans.

Flushing foreign materials puts yourself, your neighbors, and your community at risk for costly sewer line repairs and reduces the service life of the main lines and pumping equipment, and increases the cost of maintaining the District’s sewer system.

Any item that is flushed down the toilet, or poured down a sink or drain, has the potential to accumulate in the District’s sewer main causing a hefty backup. Or, objects may become lodged in the rotating impellers in the pumps used to move our wastewater to the City of Littleton Treatment Plant. A sanitary sewer system overflow is as bad as it sounds. As property owners in the Meadowbrook-Fairview Metropolitan District, we need to protect our assets.

Diapers, feminine products, grease buildup, and tree roots are the leading causes of preventable backups... 

but everyday items such as dental floss, newspaper bags, sanitary items, adult/baby diapers, pine cones, Q-tips, band-aids, gauze, string, chains, goldfish, jewelry, keys, rocks, toys, dish towels, pantyhose, coins, garden hose, wads of hair, gum and other foreign objects have been found flowing through our sanitary sewer system.

Sinks and floor drains are also not meant for the disposal of grease, oil, sand, coffee grounds, paint, flammable liquids, kitty litter, bird seed, wax, or raw or cooked food of any kind.

Never flush prescription or over-the-counter medications or hypodermic needles.

Hazardous materials and toxic or caustic liquids must be disposed of according to city and county regulations.

Sump Pumps  

No sump pump shall be connected or discharged into the District’s sanitary sewer system. The District may require inspection of all sump pump to insure proper installation and daylighting.

You can easily perform a self-audit of your home by checking for leaks, and identifying opportunities to save water. You will need to visually check all water sources in your house looking for obvious problems such as a dripping faucet or moisture under the sinks.

Bathrooms

You can do a complete bathroom check in fifteen minutes once you gather up a few necessary tools. You will need a bottle of food coloring and either a "flow bag" (available from Denver Water) or a utility bucket with known capacity. Start your audit at the toilet.

Check the toilet.

• Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait at least 15 minutes to see if the color appears in the bowl.
• Look at the back and bottom of the toilet for leaks on the supply line.

Check the sink.

• Watch the faucet for a minute for drips.
• Open the cabinet and check each supply line (hot and cold) for weak spots such as bulges in the hose.
• Turn on the faucets and watch the lines for leaks while they are in operation.

Check the bathtub/shower.

• Operate the faucets to make sure they function properly.
• For a tub with shower, divert water to the showerhead to check for leaks there, too. When the water is diverted to the showerhead, the water flow from the tub faucet should stop.
• It is difficult to check the exact flow from your aerators and showerheads without the proper "flow bag" (a plastic bag with measuring marks on the side). However, if you have a utility bucket you know the capacity of, you can time filling it to determine the approximate flow.
• If the showerhead and aerators have been around for a while, it might be time for a change. Low-flow showerheads and aerators are available at any hardware store and are usually easy to install.

To finish the bathroom audit, look at the toilet again. If water in the bowl is colored or streaked, then the food coloring has disclosed a leaking flapper valve. Flapper valves are available at any hardware store, and are easy to install. Be sure the one you purchase is the correct one for your toilet. An incorrect one will leak even more!

• Toilet
• Tub
• Shower
• Sink

Kitchen

Check all water sources for leaks, following the instructions above.

• Sink Faucets
• Dishwasher
• Garbage Disposal
• Ice Maker

Laundry

Check all water sources for leaks.

• Supply lines to washer
• Supply lines to sinks

If you have additional water sources in your house, make sure to thoroughly check these too using the same procedures.

Finding the leaks is only the first step, of course. Fix all the leaks as soon as you can.

Over 50 % of the annual water consumption a residential customer uses goes to sustaining the landscape. Performing an audit of your sprinkler system, and fine-tuning its performance can save water. A good rule-of-thumb is to thoroughly check your system in the spring when you first turn it on, and also perform a quick check after every mowing. It is important to check the system after mowing, because mowing can easily knock heads out of alignment and/or break sprinkler heads. Your sprinkler controller needs to be adjusted frequently so you’re not applying too much or too little water.

Sprinkler System Check List

The checklist will help you to create a better sprinkler schedule by understanding all the areas of your yard. Start with your clock and write down the number of minutes you have per zone. If your clock has more than one program, be sure to fill out a separate sheet for each program. Each program has separate start times and usually more than one. Write down all this information at the top of the sheet.

Inventory Your Sprinkler System

Inventory your sprinkler system by turning on one zone at a time, and collect the information requested on a sheet. Continue this process until you have completed all the zones on the clock. This information can be used to develop a schedule for your clock. Once a week after mowing, go back through all the zones to make sure everything is functioning properly. You can use this information that you have collected to develop a schedule on the Internet. Use the run time scheduler that Denver Water developed.

Watering a Slope

The information you have collected will allow you to develop the most efficient water schedule possible. If you have a zone of turf that is on a slope, then you would want to apply your water in small amounts to prevent runoff. Utilizing the start times on the clock and dividing the amount of water into several start times can achieve this. Our run time scheduler will help you develop the correct schedule.

Improve Maintenance

Dry spots indicate that you might not have proper coverage by your sprinkler head layout. Heads can be adjusted to compensate for the "weak" area. Wet areas could be caused from a leak in the system or low-head drainage. If you notice that you have a leak starting, be sure to fix it quickly to stop water waste and other problems that can result.