April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 62

W AT E R & E N E R G Y C O N S E R V AT I O N

cludes two 8-hour field work days and
one 4-hour in-class workforce training
day a week. After 1,020 hours, participants receive a certificate of completion. More than 103 smart irrigation
participants have been hired for landscaping positions after completing the
program. In the past three years, our
maintenance division has hired more
than 12 Smart Irrigation graduates.

Synthetic Fields and
Turf Replacement
The Los Angeles Department of
Recreation and Parks has also incorporated the replacement of turf as a
successful strategy for conserving water. Turf removal strategies include
replacement with organic and hardscape materials, such as drought-tolerant plants, mulch, decomposed
granite, gravel and permeable pavers.
The DWP estimates that each square
foot of turf removed will save up to
32.4 gallons each year. While there
will always be cases where turf continues to be incorporated in our parks
(such as picnic areas and active recreation areas), in general the department continues to evaluate our parks
for potential areas of turf removal.

JuanCarlos Chan, Photographer,
City of Los Angeles Department
of Recreation and Parks

Recycled Water
The second step in our water-reduction
efforts was to maximize the number of
the city's large parks, lakes and golf
courses that are converted to recycled
water. This requires close work with
the Department of Water and Power
(DWP) that installs all of the needed
recycled water pipelines (which typically are routed through existing city
streets). Through our DWP partnership, several golf courses and largescale parks have been converted to
recycled water. As of fiscal year 20142015, recycled water usage has increased to one-third of total water consumption and more recycled facilities

will be completed in the near future.
The department's goal is to develop
a plan to convert 85 percent of public
golf course acreage to recycled water
by 2017, and to also determine the feasibility of converting all golf courses to
100 percent non-potable water.

South Park Soccer Field, one of 38 synthetic fields that contribute to an estimated 62.8
million gallons of water saved annually by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation
and Parks.

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In fiscal year 2014-2015, an estimated 23 million gallons of water were
saved because of turf replacement.
For the past 10 years, the department has been installing synthetic
fields as a replacement for natural
turf fields. Synthetic fields offer several advantages over natural turf fields:
they require far less maintenance, are
much more durable, require no chemicals or fertilizers and, perhaps most
importantly, greatly reduce the need
for water. Los Angeles Recreation
and Parks has developed our own
synthetic performance specification
turf which includes a higher quality
(thicker) turf with a shock pad included in the design. Our current design specifications call for Zeolite, a
natural volcanic material, rather than
crumb rubber infill, and also require
that (to the greatest extent possible)
water drained from the field is kept
on-site. Eleven of our 38 synthetic
fields have our Los Angeles Synthetic
Turf Specification. We currently save
an estimated 62.8 million gallons of
water annually thanks to our synthetic fields. As more fields are completed, additional savings will accrue.
Energy Actions
To help us meet our energy conservation goals, we began installing
LEDs and replacing High Intensity
Discharge (HID) technology at all
existing and new parks. To further
optimize the energy savings and efficiency, we utilize motion sensors,
photocells and dimming controls to
reduce light output to 30 percent or
50 percent during times when the
areas are not occupied. LED retrofitting projects and new LED lighting
installations are core components of
our long-term park planning, construction and maintenance program.
These plans involve the eventual replacement of most HID lamps being
used for our outdoor sports fields and

April 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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