A unique collaboration between Leesburg and Holloway Technology could help to save millions of gallons of fresh water every year in one of Central Florida’s fastest growing residential areas.

Holloway’s research facility and tree farm, located at 2620 Griffin Road in Leesburg, has worked for years to develop an innovative irrigation system that recycles water to help plants grow. At the same time, the city has looked for effective ways to control water use and to require more water-friendly landscaping in its newly developed residential areas.

The two sides realized their common goal. So in April, Leesburg and Holloway set out with a new experiment that could entirely change the way future residential communities irrigate their often water-hungry and richly landscaped entrances and common areas.

The result likely will create a significant cost and environmental benefit for new developments and help protect Florida’s threatened underground water supply.

“We have to get a whole lot better at managing water and stop wasting it,” said Ray Sharp, director of Leesburg’s Environmental Services and Public Works departments. “We – as a government – need to be in the business of finding solutions for these kinds of problems.”

Sharp is working on the new landscaping project along with Rufus M. Holloway, a medical doctor and Leesburg native who is creating new types of hybrid irrigation systems at his local tree farm. Holloway’s work has grabbed the attention of governments around the world looking for ways to conserve precious drinking water.

Holloway’s hybrid systems use retention ponds and a series of basins to irrigate plants with water that is recaptured and used over and over again.

Conventional systems require new amounts of water every irrigation period, and plants typically are watered above the ground surface - a method that can lose large amounts of water to evaporation.

Holloway’s system is unique in that large basins are flooded to provide water directly to the roots of potted plants and trees. The unused water is then captured, drained and recycled.

The storage for Holloway’s irrigation is a type of storm water pond that collects rain runoff. That can nearly eliminate the need to water plants and trees with groundwater – a practice used today in all types of development from farms to residential communities.

 
The Leesburg test project takes Holloway’s ideas a big step forward. Instead of using potted plants in flood basins, a new area at Holloway’s tree farm in Leesburg uses landscape plants and trees growing directly in and around large basins of soil.

A scenic pond holds the water that is regularly pumped underground, soaking plant roots from underneath the surface. And like Holloway’s other systems, excess water flows back to the pond for future irrigation.  

The new project mimics landscaping typically found in entrances, road medians and common areas of large residential communities. Those richly planted areas can use huge amounts of water every year just to improve aesthetics of the neighborhood.

Could Holloway’s hybrid irrigation system help to curb impacts from water-hungry housing developments? So far the answer is a resounding “yes,” according to preliminary results from the study. 

“I see this could be applied to a great variation of developments with common areas. It is efficient and beautiful and – in the long run – much more economical,” Holloway said.

The new test of the hybrid irrigation system utilizes a 60- by 120-foot area to irrigate plants and trees typically found in residential neighborhoods and entrances. A beautifully decorated retention pond uses rain water – about as much as a home swimming pool – to keep the system irrigated.

Since last month the test project has used virtually no extra water to keep the plants growing while also creating a surplus of nearly 15,000 gallons of water used for other irrigation around the site.

“It’s never been done this way until now,” Holloway said. “I think the idea is very exciting.”

So far, plants are growing well using only water that is repeatedly used and recaptured for months by the unique irrigation system.

In fact, some plants are growing much better with underground irrigation than with traditional overhead sprinklers. Holloway said he also is seeing tremendous success with using only organic fertilizer and pesticides to maintain the landscaping.

The project is expected to run for a couple of years to see how the plants fare during seasonal changes.

If successful, Leesburg could require similar irrigation in developing future landscape restrictions for new residential developments.  That could have a huge impact considering that developers are proposing thousands of new homes in the Leesburg area during the next two decades.

Requiring hybrid systems could recycle rainwater and potentially save tens of millions of gallons of fresh groundwater every year. The conservation is essential with development throughout Florida quickly outpacing underground aquifers – the state’s largest existing resource of fresh water. 

Leesburg is a progressive city of more than 20,000 residents in northwest Lake County. The city government serves twice as many people with its electric, gas, water, wastewater and fiber-optic public utilities. Leesburg also is a central hub for commerce, attracting 50,000 people to work each weekday. For more information, visit www.leesburgflorida.gov.