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Denton launches irrigation-focused conservation incentives, including turf buyback and controller rebates
Summary
City water staff outlined an irrigation-centered package of incentives — controller rebates, irrigation evaluations, sprinkler tune-up rebates and a turf buyback — intended to reduce summer demand and delay costly infrastructure expansion.
Haley Salazar, Denton’s water resources administrator, told the Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee on Sept. 26 that the city is rolling out a suite of irrigation-focused incentives intended to lower discretionary summer water use.
Salazar said the city’s lawn and landscape ordinance (adopted in 02/2006) and its water conservation and drought contingency plan provide the authority and framework for the new measures. She said the conservation component of the updated plan included a mandatory twice‑a‑week irrigation schedule that went live May 1 and that the utility is using a three‑year education-first approach before stronger enforcement.
The incentives Salazar described focus on irrigation because the utility attributes most summer demand spikes to discretionary outdoor watering. "Irrigation accounts for 70% of our discretionary water use," Salazar said, adding that if the city achieves roughly 70% compliance with a twice‑a‑week schedule it could free capacity to serve an additional 16,000 residents without upsizing infrastructure.
The city’s current incentive offerings, as described by Salazar: - Controller rebate: Residents who install EPA WaterSense‑approved smart controllers…
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