Cape Coral residents have an opportunity to have their questions regarding the new proposed irrigation ordinance answered.

District 3 Councilmember Tom Hayden will hold a town hall meeting from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. this Saturday in the Green Room at the city’s Public Works Building at 815 Nicholas Parkway East. The meeting is open to all Cape Coral residents.

The main topic for the town hall is lawn irrigation and proposed changes to the irrigation regulations to make them more efficient. The town hall will feature guest speakers Jeff Pearson, utilities director, and Scott King, past president and current board member of the Florida Irrigation Society.

“A lot of homes in Cape Coral don’t irrigate properly. Homeowners haven’t been educated to understand how these systems should work,” Hayden said. “Most people water at 20 to 30 percent efficiency, which means they could be overwatering which leads to runoff onto the roads and canals and impacts the environment.”

The new regulations will be discussed at a Cape Coral City Council workshop meeting on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at City Hall.

Population growth has given rise to water conservation problems, waste of source water supply, and degradation of water quality and quantity.

Conservation is going to have to be practiced to meet future demand, and further regulation of private irrigation systems will go a long way toward that goal, according to a staff presentation.

Wells are also running dry because the city tapped into the shallow Sandstone Aquifer that is less productive than deeper aquifers, and some wells are not pumped deep enough for dry season, and the lack of rainfall hasn’t helped matters.

Nationwide, landscape irrigation accounts for a third of all residential water use, totaling 9 billion gallons per day, half of which is wasted due to evaporation, wind, or runoff, according to the EPA.

Currently, the city manages year-round irrigation water use by limiting watering of lawns and landscape to two days, four hours per week.

The proposed “Draft Irrigation Ordinance” would require a permit for all new homes and repairs of more than $1,000 to existing irrigation systems. The ordinance does not require existing systems to be altered or modified to meet new standards.

The new ordinance is intended to result in new, efficient irrigation system with Smart Systems that use up to half the water and reduce fertilizer runoff and algae blooms. Systems with smart controllers/soil sensors would not be required to follow two days per week restrictions.

Irrigation-related fees would increase. Inspection fees on new systems would go up from $160 for commercial and $66 for residential to $296 and $202, respectively, a $136 increase because of the added Plan Review fee.

“As more people come into the Cape, it’s going to be more and more of a problem,” Hayden said. “These Smart Systems will regulate water for you. You don’t have to worry about the two-day-a-week watering.”