By Steven Mayer
The Bakersfield Californian
The challenge for the city was to maintain and irrigate more than 160 miles of streetscaping and median landscaping, not to mention 59 city parks — all while slashing water use in the midst of an extreme drought.
Had Bakersfield’s Recreation and Parks Department reduced water use by 36 percent, it would have been in line with the conservation mandate handed down by the governor’s office.
But the city didn’t just meet the mandate, it exceeded it. By a lot.
“We have been able to reduce water use significantly, by more than 50 percent,” said Dianne Hoover, director of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. “We’re very proud of our employees who have really worked hard to make this happen.”
The city is the largest water user by far within its own municipal water system, which covers about one-third of Bakersfield, mostly in the southwest. The city also buys water from California Water Service Co., which serves most of the other two-thirds of the city.
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