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12 | Four Seasons Hemet Herald | JULY 2019 | This month's article will discuss water. Water is a very important resource for everyone on this earth. It is something every living thing on this planet needs to exist. It is also a product that is not very easy to make. If a lake or river dries up it cannot get refilled by turning on a valve and refilling the area. Thus, we must all conserve and respect the water we currently have. That said we should all strive to conserve our water as much as possible. In walking around the community, how many times do we observe water running down the streets into the gutter? This excess water is wasting our resource for no good reason. It is basically, throwing your money down the gutter. Let's look at some of the results of over- watering at a home owner level. • Too much water on a grass lawn causes the roots of the grass to die because they are being drowned. • Plants also get drowned from excess water. • Excess water turns sour and emits a terrible odor from the rotting plant life. • Expensive landscaping looks bad because the plants always look like they are dying. • Constant replacing of plants because they don't grow properly. • Over-watering compromises the integrity of your houses' foundation, driveways and sidewalks, resulting in cracks and unevenness. • Landscape material gets washed down the street. • Fertilizers and plant food don't work because they are all washed down the street. • Bugs breed in wet environments spreading disease and attract unwanted critters that feed on them. • You can't walk in your yard without creating a mess from the mud. • Your water bill is very expensive. • These are a few of the items you may notice around your house that may need to be corrected, especially the expensive water bill. • Over-watering can cause major expenses for our community. • Excessive water stains the concrete gutters. • Water slowly running in the gutters turns green with algae. • Constant water running down our streets erodes the base of our streets and sidewalks. • Constant over-watering erodes the top layer of asphalt on our streets. • Over-watering washes dirt on to the street surface. • The gutters need to be cleaned more often as the landscape material washes into the gutter system. • The water hinders our street sweeping and leaves a huge mess in our streets. • The walking public must try to avoid the wet areas throughout our community. • Street slurry wouldn't dry because of water running down gutters and wicking into the asphalt. These are a few of the problems excessive over-watering causes for the homeowners of our community. The cost of repairing our streets will be a very expensive endeavor. FirstService Residential has begun issuing letters to offending homeowners that have water running down the streets. A walk around our community as of this writing has shown water running down Bogey with Langer and Lyle adding to the water flow. Garcia has algae growing in the gutters. Maruyama has a river running down both sides of the street. Casper has water flowing down the street with Doyle providing the bulk of the water flow. Tewell has water flowing from January to Gibson with the connecting streets providing additional run-off. Faldo has water running down the street with connecting streets contributing to the flow. One house was watering the street. The fix is simple. Change the time on your irrigation control panel or ask your gardener to adjust it for you. Most control panels are located in your garage. If water is running down the street, it is not soaking into your yard. Check your watering times. There is no yard in this community that should run over eight minutes. Check the backyard drains that have been cut into the street. If they have water flowing out, the back yard is being overwatered. Be aware that the control panel has a battery. If the battery is dead, your control panel will revert to the default mode after a power fail. Our streets and sidewalks are our most expensive repairs. The longer we can preserve our streets and sidewalks, the more money we can accumulate in our reserve fund which will keep our monthly fees from rising. Many people are trying to save money on their electric bill by installing solar panels. Do the same with your water. It is cheaper to turn the timers down than to buy solar panels. Give it a try. Architectural Review Committee

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