Bend sprinkler inspection program full for year

The City of Bend’s Sprinkler Inspection Pilot Program is no longer accepting appointments for this 2015 season.

The City of Bend launched a free sprinkler inspection program for Bend water customers this summer in an effort to increase irrigation efficiency and conserve our most precious natural resource – water.

The initial pilot phase of the program generated an immediate response from Bend water customers and quickly filled to capacity.

“The response we’ve seen has been really encouraging,” said Mike Buettner, the city’s water conservation program manager. “We forecast between 75 and 100 requests for inspections with the initial pilot phase of this program and we quickly received more than 100 requests. This has put us in an excellent position to have the data necessary to evaluate this program for future years.”

The City of Bend is tentatively planning to offer sprinkler inspections during the 2016 growing season based on the positive response to the pilot program.

It is estimated that approximately 60 percent of all residential water use is for landscape irrigation. Much of that water is wasted due to misaligned or damaged sprinklers, runoff and improper scheduling.

Information on the status of the sprinkler inspection program and other programs is available at www.waterwisetips.org.