IRRIGATION


“We aren’t out there trying to make


everybody look bad.We want to be a valuable


resource for them to help them because our bottom line iswe want to save water, save our precious resource.”


– Salina Sutton-Jensen, Sutton Irrigation Auditing


Customers might cringe at the thought of an audit, but describing the process more as a system assess- ment that could end up saving them money might encourage them to be more cooperative. Photos: Sutton Irrigation Auditing


thrilled with the prospect of an audit. “Tere are customers that love it and there are some


that are a little frustrated, but at the end of the day, every single person I deal with is happy because I help to point out problems or help reassure them that the work on their site has been done correctly,” Alvarez says. Te main function of an irrigation audit is to make sure


a system is working as it was designed. Tat’s an important distinction, says Miguel Maldonado, owner of Brother’s Irrigation and Lighting in Columbus, Ohio, because a sys- tem might be functioning, but not at the level of efficiency


irrigationandlighting.org


with which it was designed. “If you have some leaking gaskets on a head, the head might be shooting 28 feet instead of the 30 feet it was de- signed to cover, and you’re missing two feet of coverage,” says Maldonado. “Te system might be working, but it isn’t working how it was designed.”


Is an audit right for my client?


While irrigation audits can be especially useful to prop- erty managers who must be able to account for expendi- tures like hefty water bills, they can be even more useful to


November 2023 Irrigation & Lighting 21


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