Research Problem and Background:
Increased landscape irrigation in the mountain west, resulting from population growth, is placing severe demands on urban water supplies. In Salt Lake City, summer water use is four times that during the winter, due largely to landscape irrigation. Turf is responsible for this increased summer water use since it occupies most landscaped area. Much of this water can be conserved. A water audit of the Salt Lake County building in Salt Lake City showed that irrigation rates were twice the amount needed after accounting for system non uniformity. Conserved landscape water can then be used for further development. For a large institutional landscape, documenting and achieving water savings are separate items. The person instituting a water-savings schedule is often not the one actually running the irrigation system. Utah State Researchers don’t know if educating the person running the system will result in more effective implementation of an irrigation schedule. In addition, the ease of implementing an irrigation schedule may vary with type of irrigation system. Automated systems allow more control over run times versus quick-coupler manual systems.

Project Objectives:
The objectives of this project were to develop toxicity testing methodologies, evaluate hyporheic sampling for study of water quality, study effectiveness of aquatic mosses for monitoring metals, develop methods to use leaf pack decomposition for monitoring pollution sources impacting water systems, and develop techniques for improving water quality within projects.

Overall Outcome or Conclusions:
The goal of this project is to determine the most effective means of instituting irrigation scheduling in a school district in Salt Lake City, Utah with different types of irrigation systems. The specific objectives of this study are:

• Implement an irrigation schedule for 88 schools in Granite School District, based on irrigation system evaluation and a water budgeting approach
  
• Compare effectiveness of scheduling for schools with automated systems versus schools with quick-coupler systems
  
• Determine if training the on-site irrigation manager increases effectiveness of irrigation scheduling
  

Partners:
Eastern Colorado Area Office, EPA Region VIII, U.S. Forest Service.

Publications and/or Other Deliverables
Holdren, G.C., and S.M. Nelson. 1998. Water supply and water quality in Totten Reser-voir, Montezuma County, Colorado. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-98-9.

Nelson, S.M. 1996. Monitoring of heavy metal concentrations in the Arkansas River using transplanted bryophytes. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-96-18.

Nelson, S.M. 1998. Leaf pack processing and macroinvertebrate colonization: bioassess-ment tools for a high altitude regulated system? Submitted to Freshwater Biology.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1996. Distribution of aquatic macroinvertebrates in relation to stream flow characteristics in the Arkansas River. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-96-19.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1996. Recovery of a stream macroinvertebrate community from mine drainage disturbance. Hydrobiologia 339:73-84.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1996. Results of macroinvertebrate sampling on Lake Fork and some recommendations for monitoring Dinero Tunnel impacts on Lake Fork. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-97-17.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1997. Assessment of Leadville mine drainage tunnel impacts on the upper Arkansas River using hyporheic pot samples. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-97-10.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1997. Comparison of rapid toxicity tests with a standard acute test. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-97-9.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1998. Evaluation of the sensitivity of rapid toxicity tests relative to daphnid acute lethality tests. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 60:292-299.

Nelson, S.M., and R.A. Roline. 1998. Relations between metals and hyporheic inverte-brate community structure in a river recovering from metals contamination. USBR-TSC Technical Memorandum No. 8220-98-7. (Also submitted to Hydrobiologia.)