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Frequently Asked Questions
Is There A Penalty For Not Meeting the Water Saving Rebate Bonus Requirements?
There is no penalty for not meeting the requirements for the bonus. Each month, you will receive an e-mail outlining your
water use and whether your water use matched the expected water
use for your size landscape. If you used over 10% more than expected over
the period of the year of tracking, then you will not receive the bonus. If you stayed within 10% of the water use expected (average
over the year) then you will receive your bonus in the form of a credit on your water bill.
What about My Indoor Water Usage? How Is that Taken Into Account?
We have water use records for typical San Antonio families during the winter
months that represent non-irrigation time periods. We will subtract
7,000 gallons from your water usage each month to account for indoor water use for each month of the year in order to
review outdoor water usage. If you want to make sure that your indoor
water usage is at least as low as the city average for a family, make
sure you are taking appropriate steps to conserve inside as well as outside.
A Conservation Technician can come to your home to provide a FREE Indoor
Water Audit to help you conserve. You can also review portions on our
web site for indoor water conservation tips.
Can You Adjust My Water Records For Leaks or Visiting Guests?
We are sorry, but we cannot make exceptions to meeting the goal of being
within 10% of expected water use. The bonus is intended as an incentive
to encourage very frugal water use over the course of one year of time.
We calculate the bonus, and all of our rebate programs, on a conservation
formula that compares the cost of obtaining new water for the community
vs. the cost of giving an incentive to encourage citizens to use less.
If we were to give bonuses to citizens who did not save a large amount
of water, we would no longer be following a policy that uses ratepayer
funds in the most efficient manner possible.
How Do You Determine How Much Water I Should Have Used?
Your actual water use will be compared to expected water use for
each month of the year. Weather and rainfall will be taken into
account in calculating expected water use. The size of your lot
will also be taken into account. Even if you have a very large
property, we will calculate a bonus that assumes active watering
of plants over an area no more than 7,000 square feet. You may
have larger landscaped areas, but in managing a landscape for
maximum water savings it is expected that a homeowner would not
actively irrigate more than 7,000 square feet. It is your personal
choice to water more landscape areas, but we cannot provide a
bonus incentive for the increased water use that would result.
Can You Tell Me Now How Much Water to Use Each Month?
We can’t predict the weather in advance well enough to tell
you a water budget for the next year. Temperature, wind, humidity,
rainfall and other factors are used in scientific calculations
to determine water need for plants. These factors are often quite
different one year to the next. However, you can track approximate
water need each week by following our Seasonal
Irrigation Program (SIP). The SIP program scientifically calculates
water need of grass each week. Bedding areas typically need much less once established (2-4 months). You can register
online to receive free SIP advice each week. Please review
the “Watering Advice” portion of this document to
understand how the SIP watering advice applies to your overall
watersaver landscape management.
Do All Plants Have to Be In Place When I Apply?
People moving into new homes in the summer often ask this question. We
encourage them to delay major landscape projects until cooler fall months.
Fall is also an excellent time to find great values at local nurseries.
Foundation plants such as shrubs and trees should be planted during the
cooler months of September, October and November whenever possible. If
you would like to follow this practice, lay down mulch in your intended
bedding areas and wait to finish planting in the fall. You will have to
install grass (drought tolerant required) as soon as you can to prevent
soil erosion. SAWS will process your rebate request if all areas of the
landscape have either grass or mulch covering them.
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