Olive Middle School Sports Park Model Water Efficient Landscape Project

The Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District (Upper District) plans to embark on Phase II of retrofitting the irrigation system of the Olive Middle School Sports Park, located just north of Olive Middle School in Baldwin Park. The Sports Park consists of three baseball diamonds and one softball diamond and is currently administered and maintained by the Baldwin Park Little League.

Volunteers installed the current irrigation system, which is manually operated, over fifteen years ago. On occasion fields have been flooded or left very dry and leakage has remained a constant problem throughout the years. A new automated irrigation system would greatly increase the efficiency of the system and maintain a viable water efficient landscape.

Phase I included installation of all new irrigation piping, a booster pump, controls, ground leveling and seeding for the two largest fields (Fields 1 and 2). Construction for Phase I is near completion and the fields will be ready by the end of March 2003 in time for use during the Little League's upcoming 2003 season.

Design and construction of the project is underway in order to meet the proposed goal of completing all fields for use in the Little League's 2004 season. The design includes new irrigation piping, a water meter to measure irrigation consumption, a booster pump to increase water pressures, automated controller clocks, an evapotranspiration tracking (Et0) system, moisture sensing, rain shut-off, addition of soil amendments, leveling out irregularities in fields, and placement of new turf. One of the BATs for irrigation installations includes Et0 tracking which consists of daily communication with local weather stations that reports daily evapotranspiration rates. This information is then input into the irrigation system's controllers, which automatically adjusts the amount of water to be applied to the fields. These daily automatic adjustments based on current weather conditions will allow the system to conserve water in the most efficient manner.

In Phase II, the Upper District proposes retrofitting the irrigation system of Fields 3 and 4 using new "Best Available Technology" (BAT) in order to increase water efficiency for this community Sports Park. This model project incorporates state-of-the-art irrigation technology that provides a showcase for the demonstration of improvements in water efficiency that can be achieved with new technologies. Upper District has asked Stetson Engineers to head up the design of the project. Stetson Engineers will be working with the Water Management Group (irrigation specialists) and RHA Landscape Architects Planners to design the new system and overlying turf.

Work during Phase II includes installation of all new irrigation piping, controllers, ground leveling and seeding for the remaining two fields (Fields 3 and 4). Construction for Phase II is proposed to begin in July 2003 and the fields would be ready for use by the end of November 2003. When completed, the project is expected to yield a long-term water conservation benefit of 30% to 40%.