When it comes to landscape irrigation, new technology can become a two-edged sword. It is great when it works, and it can be a real water and/or resource waster when it’s misused or inappropriate. Unfortunately, the Colorado State Legislature, with its good intentions, has enacted several laws in recent years that seem to have dubious impacts on landscape water use in certain circumstances and make little sense in others.
Take Colorado HB19-1231 which requires pressure regulations on every spray head sold in the state. A majority of the time this proves successful in being a true water saver. However, in low pressure situations where properties are starving for water pressure (less than 40 PSI), installing pressure regulating spray heads makes absolutely no sense, especially when rotating nozzles are being utilized as they require a minimum of 40 PSI to operate effectively.
In 2023 the state legislature passed HB23-1161 which, among other things, dictates that only “Smart” or WiFi enabled irrigation control clocks be sold and installed in the state beginning on January 1, 2026. Normally this can be advantageous in saving water to most irrigation system owners and managers, but the savings are lost (and possibly more) if any portion of the system goes array. These problems might include weather data error, internet outages, software malfunctions, etc. Also, many irrigation system owners may not have access to the WiFi necessary for these controllers to operate.
This same bill requires check valves be manufactured into every pressure regulated spray head sold in the state. This will theoretically help save water by reducing or eliminating low head drainage but ignores the potential water savings that could be realized should check valves be mandated for rotors as well. Also, this house bill doesn’t address the fact that there are thousands of automatic drain valves installed on irrigation systems statewide every year (one distributor reported over 4500 drain valves sold in the state last year alone). They eliminate any benefit of installing sprinkler heads with check valves since they drain the lateral lines automatically whenever valves turn off.
To add insult to injury, this new requirement of check valves on spray heads will make it more and more necessary for ALL sprinkler systems to be blown out in the fall to prevent freeze damage wherever colder air temperatures are persistent (northern states), as they leave water trapped inside the sprinkler head that may not be there otherwise, even when automatic drain valves are present.
Barely a week after this law went into effect, there were rumors circulating that this newer state law has been put on hold, at least temporarily, and obviously for many of the reasons just mentioned. Just another example of our hard working State Legislature having good intentions but ending up deciding that perhaps the status quo may be good enough for now.
In summary, what the state of Colorado truly needs if they are truly concerned about saving water as they should be, is to begin a statewide licensing program as they have been doing for over 15 years in Texas. This could help ensure that only qualified irrigation contractors (or homeowners under supervision of a licensed sprinkler person) could install or service irrigation systems throughout our state, in turn saving water by standardizing the quality of sprinkler systems statewide. Licensed personnel would only be using the most recent proven and accepted products and practices while conserving this most precious and dwindling resource. Perhaps you should speak out to your state representatives and tell them what YOU think!