sprinklers
 

I just took my cart from Fenney to Brownwood farmers mkt. Why are the sprinklers going 9 a.m.? There are major rains coming, isn't the ground wet enough already?

It's done in order to lower the level in retention ponds so that the ponds have space to receive the heavy rains without causing flooding.

Lowering the level of the retention ponds in advance?

This is part of the water management program here in TV. When we have too much rain, this is how they lower the water levels in our retention basins to keep from flooding.

Must be new here, whenever a storm comes, they lower the ponds, and remove the gates.

Some of the water from the sprinklers evaporates immediately in the air. Some after it is on the ground. It's preferable to the ponds overflowing and flooding homes.

This site really needs some sort of automatic response to these frequently asked questions by newcomers.

It’s called search.

Thanks. Not to new 3 yrs, never really noticed it before. Got drenched a couple of times oncoming carts.

They are running much more than I've seen in 5 yrs south of 44. The retention ponds are also higher.

Kudo's to the Villages storm water management team for being proactive 2 days before the official warnings materialized.

https://www.districtgov.org/PdfUpload/Storm%20Water.pdf

Homeowners might consider running their irrigation system too. My designer home system uses 900 - 1,000 gallons when I water the lawn, costs less than $3.

How many times is this explained?

As a "newcomer" here let me just say: the search function on this site sucks.

Sprinklers
 

Running sprinklers to lower lake levels

What the villages should do is to tell the people in each district to run their sprinklers on a specific day and there will be no cost of doing this. The system knows how much water you use to water your lawn every day so it would be easy for them to credit you for 1 day. The major benefits would be: people’s lawns might look better, and that would draw down the water more than having TV water specific areas for 6 hours a day

The system does not know how much water you use to water your lawn every day. All the system knows is how much water you used in each month for as long as you owned the home. The system doesn't know how many days you watered or how long your system ran on each of those days. The calculations for this would be horrendous and there would likely be hundreds of homeowners who didn't agree with the results.

Secondly, saturating your own lawn is not what you want to do before a heavy rain event. You want your lawn to be able to absorb some of the water to reduce standing water and runoff damage. If your lawn is saturated at the beginning of the event then everything that falls becomes runoff. Not only could this potentially damage your property but it also means more water into the storm drains which raises the ponds faster.

EDIT to add:

Water pressure would also make it more difficult to calculate how much water a homeowner uses in a day. If everyone turned on their irrigation at the same time the water pressure would drop and you would use less than you use under normal conditions. This would make it even more difficult to estimate how much to discount a bill.

Also, some irrigation systems are connected to potable water and not pond water. This is common above 466 but might occur in other pockets too. Running these systems would not help the ponds at all. Expecting Villagers to know which system they are on is unrealistic.

They are draining the retention ponds in anticipation of additional rainfall

You have to pay for that water. At $3 for 30 days that is $90 a month. People here scream when their Amenity fee goes up $4 a month.

I also don’t think the home irrigation water is tied to the ponds.

I’m not a newcomer, but I’m afraid I have to agree. 😢

Depends on where you live.

A golf corse sprinkler puts out more water in 1 minute then yours does in 1 hour.

Home irrigation is not tied to the ponds so it wouldn’t make any difference anyway.

Just answer The guys question you don’t need 20 responses of the same answer. The person is curious one or two responses and the rest that you should just mind your business, but everybody has to throw in their two cents. That’s why the site sucks at times.

Too bad they always lower the ponds too much causing many of them to never fully recover because not all areas receive lots of rain during these storms. Here in Deluna we always have ponds that aren’t full due to how much water we lose before storms because of the “water management” system, and then we have unsightly half empty, or in some cases completely dry ponds throughout the winter season until we finally receive rain again the following summer. Then it starts all over again with the “system” lowering our finally full, or half full ponds again. They need a system that lowers only the ponds that are actually full, but I guess that would mean boots on the ground checking each pond rather than the automated system they use everywhere whether it’s needed or not.

Also, I agree about the search feature here. It sucks.

Down south of 44 our irrigation comes from the ponds.

To lower the water level of the ponds before the next storm.

Just choose not to read those questions/posts.

Emptying the ponds to prepare for what's coming

I am waiting for this uninformed person to acknowledge they were ignorant with this statement and thank those who informed them and made them more knowledgeable.

Adding these FAQs to newbie site
 

I'll add these FAQs to The Villages 101 The Villages 101 You've come the right place for renters and snowbirds to learn about The Villages "Florida's Friendliest Hometown". Neighborhoods, house rentals, activities, and pointers to the many other resources.

But agree that using the search function is always a good idea before posting ....

Tropical Storm "Milton" is headed towards Florida, where it is expected to build into a hurricane prior to arriving here. So, water is being drained from retention ponds to make room for the heavy rainfall that is anticipated from the hurricane. The Villages does an OUTSTANDING job of "managing water" to protect homes from flooding here in America's friendliest town!

15 yards for unnecessary roughness, piling on a downed player.

When ever I hear that they are drawing down the ponds by watering the golf courses, why can’t we use that water on our grass at a discounted rate or free

You must be new around here. After you've been through a few hurricanes and tropical storms you'll never give it a second thought.

That's fine if you're watering with "reclaimed water". But for many of us in the "older" sections our sprinklers use the same water as the house--regular tap water.

An ounce of prevention...

The problem with that is people don't read the paper, don't go to websites like this, don't listen to the radio, don't pay attention to any of the outlets that distribute that kind of information ad nauseum. Don't even speak with their neighbors. So if someone is watering their lawn on any day other than their assigned days some trolls will complain to the powers that be that their neighbor is in violation of some obscure "covenant". The Villages has the flood mitigation under control. If you get splashed in your golf cart that's a small price to pay for not having your home flooded.

The overwhelming majority of homes in the Villages get their irrigation water from retention ponds. There are homes in the older areas north of CR-466 that use potable water for irrigation, but they are the exception, not the rule.

Yes it IS tied to the ponds. There are costs to maintain the system and keep the pumps running. It is a complex system and there are costs to it. Those pumps are not cheap.

Had same ? years ago. System is crazy but seems to work well. Only problem is that all areas are now saturated and more rain coming. Hope grass(especially golf courses) can handle the over saturation.

How does the system know how much water you use every day? My irrigation system has a meter, and my bill reflects my monthly usage, but I didn't think they have daily usage data, unless they were to read the meter every day. Also, if you use the correct amount of water, the water should be absorbed by your lawn, and not drained off into the retention ponds. I think a lot of people use way too much irrigation water.