The purpose of these rules was supposed to be reasonable. The letter of the rules doesn't prohibit watering non-automatically. There are sprinklers that travel on wheels that can water in addition to the sprinklers in the ground. Not only that, but the water cost charged by Cal Water is 1/2 what Mountain View charges. The high school might consider contracting with one of the enterprises which truck in recycled water to keep the fields alive too. That would need to use the traveling sprinklers. There was TV news coverage of a little league field which was watered that way.


However, I don't think the actual rules prohibit using potable water on traveling sprinklers. It just has to be supervised. Perhaps a mixture of the two approaches would make sense for the fields?

As for runoff, it is recommended that the 15 minutes be broken up into smaller intervals, so that more water can soak in before it starts running off. E.g. water at 4am 5am and 6am too, but for 5 minutes each.

The district should be commended for saving so much water.

There are other solutions, recycling water for field watering is certainly one. Changing the irrigation system from a "spray/sprinkler" system to a soaker/mat system is also one. Conversion from natural grasses to artificial turf would be another.

The only issue with any of these solutions is money. Any of these solutions cost money to implement. As a community, until we decide that long-term investment is where we need to look to solve these problems we will continue to use "money" as the excuse for letting our fields expire.

Wa Wa Wa..Where are the "Out of the box" people ?

Both of the above comments make sense. Jezebel. Get to it and innovate.

The needs of the school's water demand (which includes watering its landscaping, including sports facilities) were included in the Urban Water Management Plan in 2010 for 20 years. Have any of you looked at the plan? Based upon the comments and public statements (rife with political correct-speak) you have not and know nothing about the subject you are talking about. [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]


The kneejerk reaction to think you have to stop watering the field shows the UTTER INCOMPETENCE of school administrators, the local politicians, and the general public.

Stop the hyperbole and water the field!

Awkward for MVHS to be the only public school/playground to be dry. All of the other middle schools and parks in Mv and Palo Alto are at least minimally green. What do Crittenden, Stevenson, Jls/Mitchell etc. do to keep the grass greenish? Why should MVHS punish the students for actions taken/not taken by governments in the past? Why does Sunnyvale have enough water to keeps parks/schools green? (Answer: all of those huge water tanks) We had enough rain in December to fulfill all of our water needs for a complete season, but it all ran into the bay. (waters levels in the creeks were all over flood marks, 16 feet high reported in some) Rain water reservoirs/storage tanks would retain some of the water that devastated the flora/fauna in the creeks. California has not built any new rain water reservoirs since 1986, due to lawsuits by environmental groups.

This is just another example of the government’s (this time the City of Mountain View) one size fits all rules leads to unnecessary suffering. Congratulations Mountain View, you have demonstrated it again!

You know, someone missed something somewhere. Sure, all the other schools look lush and green compared to MVHS. But why? Does anyone seriously think they limit watering to 15 minutes 2 days a week? No way no how. These rules are being flouted. Not only that but the city actually provides water hookups for irrigating most of the schools, on the city's dime. So this flouting of the rules is being done by the city ITSELF. Just think about that. Pretty ridiculous rules anyway, saying 15 minutes was the limit. In a normal year you know these fields are getting irrigated all over for way more than 15 minutes even if done EVERY day. It's likely 100 minutes a week. So this year, to achieve a 20-25% reduction, the time is supposed to be cut by 70%

Crazy city. The state water board dropped the language about minute limitations in its specification of 2 days per week as the standard, and for GOOD REASON!

I agree with the negative comments above!