Palmdale residents have saved nearly 50 million gallons of water
Palmdale homeowners Shane and Karie Purcell were joined by City officials, water district representatives to unveil their new 2,500 square foot drought tolerant landscaping project that was installed and financed through the HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program.
PACE financing enables people to make water and energy efficiency improvements to their home and pay for them over time through their property tax bills.
“Palmdale homeowners, like the Purcells, can benefit from taking action now to make their homes more water and energy efficient and in the process save money on their utility bills,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “These projects not only help address the drought and are good for the environment, but also create jobs and boost our local economy.”
The Purcells stopped watering their lawn in 2014 in response to the drought and the high cost of water. The family used HERO financing to install drought tolerant landscaping and drip irrigation. HERO estimates they will save more than 3 million gallons of water over the lifetime of the landscaping project, netting them an estimated $31,960 savings on their water bills.
“We took on this project because we wanted to save money on our water bills as the cost of water goes up,” said Karie Purcell. “We were also getting tired of looking at our brown lawn. We wanted to do something in the yard that would be attractive but use a lot less water than grass.”
The City of Palmdale launched its partnership with HERO in May of 2014. Since then, 347 homeowners have used $7.5 million in HERO financing to improve the energy or water efficiency of their homes or to install solar power systems. Over the useful life of the products, the HERO PACE projects installed in Palmdale will save nearly 53 million gallons of water, reduce energy use by 43 kWh and lower emissions by 11.7 tons. In addition, this home improvement activity has spurred the creation of 64 local jobs, saved homeowners nearly $11.5 million on their utility bills and had a total local economic impact of $13 million.
California just passed the one-year mark of Governor Brown calling for a 25% overall reduction in water use by cities.
The City of Palmdale has answered that call, with residents saving nearly 50 million gallons of water by making use of the HERO PACE Program. Since becoming available in May of 2014, over 300 Palmdale homeowners have used the HERO PACE Program to take action in their own homes by installing energy-efficient, renewable energy, and water-saving products to reduce the region’s consumption of natural resources, while also stimulating the economy and creating new, local jobs.
HERO is the #1 energy-efficiency financing program in the United States. HERO is a private program that partners with local governments to make energy efficient, water efficient, and renewable energy products more affordable for homeowners. The partnership enables any city or county to offer Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing to property owners within their community. HERO is privately funded and requires no cost outlays by participating communities. To learn more about HERO, visit www.heroprogram.com
PALMDALE PRESS RELEASE/PALMDALEWATERDISTRICT