Fresno State Takes Drastic Measures To Save Water

It’s not just residents across the state trying to conserve water, it turns out Fresno State is taking drastic measures to conserve as well. They’re spending over $ 200,000 on turning their water system into a more efficient one and they’re changing out their landscaping.

In the past few months, Fresno State has cut back on water use on landscaping by over 20 percent and they’re starting to see the effects.

A usually green campus filled with beautiful landscaping now has several patches of dried grass and fewer flowers, soon students will see more changes in an effort to conserve water.

Maintenance Director Rick Finden said "We’re looking at replacing certain lawns with other type of coverings out here in the parking lots particularly."

In one parking lot most landscaping is now gone, replaced by decomposed granite. Other areas may be replaced by wood chips.

Crews will replace over 2,000 water valves around campus and 22,000 sprinklers to control the amount of water that is used.

"It’s smart for them to conserve water because they are such a major contributor. This is a big campus, theres a lot of lawns, that’s a lot of water, a lot of trees," Allie Samonian said.

Water efficient plants and a sustainable garden have already replaced several lawns, and although Fresno State pumps their own water, they want to contribute to water conservation as much as possible.

"I think this is going to be the new California and we just have to adapt and make the changes that are required," Finden said.