The city of Greensboro initiated mandatory lawn watering restrictions earlier this month due to ongoing drought conditions. For today’s installment of Carolina Curious, a listener wanted to know how the citywide directive applies to universities.
Greensboro’s Stage II water shortage response plan makes it unlawful to water things like lawns and shrubs, except when it’s done by hand-held hose, container or drip irrigation systems. The limit is one day of watering per week.
But the rules are a little different for public, private, and institutional customers like universities that own playing fields. Greg Clarke is the associate athletics director for facilities and operations at North Carolina A&T State University. He says instead of a weekly limit, they can meet the city requirements in two other ways.
"You can go punch in the control system that you want to water it for, say, 30 minutes, 20 minutes manually," says Clarke. "Or in the system, you can say, "Hey, I want to use," as in this case, they tell you to cut it by 40 percent. So you want 60 percent usage, and the controller will take care of your percentages and your watering."
These institutions are also only allowed to water between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Clarke says that during the summer Bermuda grass growing season, June through August, navigating water restrictions can present challenges. But, he says, by the fall, that new growth has slowed.
"If you choose to overseed with a perennial rye or whatever type rye that you use, you may spend maybe a couple of days or so watering that in, but for the most part, your heavy use of water is behind you," he says.
City officials say the Stage II water shortage response plan will remain in effect until further notice. They hope to relax restrictions in the coming weeks, but that will depend on Mother Nature.