Following the Irrigation Association's lead, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton recently announced that his state would designate July as Smart Irrigation Month.

Already a national campaign sponsored by the IA, Smart Irrigation Month aims to increase awareness about practices and technologies homeowners and businesses can use to sustain healthy lawns and landscapes while using water resources more efficiently.

"July is a peak month for water use," said Gary Klinefelter, founder and president, IrriGreen, Inc., which designs and manufactures digital technology for lawn irrigation from its headquarters in Edina, Minnesota. "For example, the city of Woodbury, Minnesota, supplies an average of four million gallons of water per day during the winter. In the summer, daily water use goes up to as much as 16 million gallons. Lawn irrigation accounts for most of the summertime increase."

According to the manufacturer, reducing water not only helps homeowners and businesses save money on their utility bills, it helps to cut down on the need for public spending on new infrastructure to store and convey water, and protect our communities' water supplies for the future.