A woman at the house, who was retrieving her soggy newspaper, said she already had reduced the run time.

“We’ve been trying to key it in and not get overspray,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “The controller is new for me; our gardener knows how to run it.”

They will be given 30 days to fix the problems or will face the possibility of $500 a day in fines—or even have water turned off.

It is all in response to a call for conservation by the Sonoma County Water Agency, which was ordered by the state in mid-June to cut the amount of water it takes from the Russian River between July 1 and Oct. 28 by 15 percent from the same period in 2004. The water is to be kept in Lake Mendocino, which is historically low, to be released for the fall run of chinook salmon.

If the Santa Rosa doesn’t meet its goal or if the Water Agency calls for an even higher conservation level, the city has an emergency program prepared.

As part of the patrols, the city employees are particularly looking at homes that records show have high monthly water use, Muelrath said.