City water-conservation professionals want to evaluate your irrigation system and help you improve it.

Under a proposal approved Wednesday by the Public Utilities Committee, the city's Water Conservation staff would visit Santa Fe homes to inspect landscape irrigation systems and offer advice on making them more efficient.

Most landscape water managers use four to 10 times more water than is required, said Dan Ransom, water conservation manager. That means education and site visits could save thousands of gallons of water at each home and business that participates.

"Depending on the system, the savings can be huge," said Ransom.

The city already offers landscape audits, but the revamped program is intended to make sure those who receive audits are able to follow through.

Workshops will be offered on how to fine tune, upgrade and maintain in-ground irrigation systems, then qualify city water customers for proposed rebates on certain irrigation-system hardware, such as rain- and soil-moisture sensors, weather-based irrigation controllers, and pressure-regulating valves and spray heads.

Each customer would also have to agree to a system evaluation in order to cash in on the credits, and water staff would perform a post-installation inspection to ensure hardware is working properly to achieve goals.

The city offers water-conservation rebates for various appliances and fixtures such as washing machines and hot-water recirculators. A program that offered rebates for rain barrels ended last fall.

The irrigation program proposal moves next to the city Finance Committee before heading to the full City Council for action. For more information, contact the city Water Conservation Office at 955-4225.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 505-986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.