The City of Greenville is celebrating its partnership with Greenville Water with an 8-million-gallon water savings in 2022 compared to previous years.
With the help of Greenville Water, the city identified ways to use less water on city-owned parks and fountains. A task force dedicated to making the city’s parks more sustainable through water savings completed the following tasks:
- Fixing water leaks and breaks
- Installing rain sensors, so the city uses less water to irrigate parks based on rainfall
- Turning off fountains and water lines during freezes to prevent burst pipes and leaks
This means the city used 8.7 million gallons less water in its parks and fountains last year compared to the average annual use during 2019, 2020 and 2021. The City of Greenville realized especially significant water savings during late winter and early spring, with 2022 usage in January, February and March reduced by 60 percent compared to the average use in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
“Water is essential to sustaining life,” said Hannah Slyce, Sustainability Planner for the City of Greenville. “One of the major goals of SustainableGVL is to continue to provide clean drinking water and high-quality sanitation services through reducing the City’s water usage. The water saving features we’ve installed save time, money and precious resources and help us move towards a more sustainable Greenville.”
Some years are rainier than others, so to confirm the water savings wasn’t due to an external factor such as annual rainfall, Greenville Water compared the city’s irrigation use with businesses and residences in the city and found a noticeable drop in the city’s percentage irrigation use in 2021, with a further reduction in 2022.
The two organizations continue to celebrate an innovative partnership. Greenville Water provides water for the city’s publicly-used areas free of charge. The City of Greenville and Greenville Water are looking at potential parks this water-saving strategy can benefit in the future.
Visit the City of Greenville website for more information.
Written by the City of Greenville.