Spring is here, and if you haven’t turned on your irrigation system yet, the Roslyn Water District wants a word with you first.
The district, which serves a wide swath of Nassau County including Roslyn, Roslyn Heights, East Hills, Albertson, Searingtown, parts of Greenvale, parts of Old Westbury, and small portions near Mineola, is reminding homeowners about its irrigation rules before the season gets away from everyone. The timing matters. Water use in the district triples during warmer months compared to winter, which puts serious pressure on the infrastructure and, more critically, on the underground water supply that everyone in the region depends on.
That’s not a figure of speech. Long Island sits above a sole-source aquifer, meaning there is no backup water supply. What’s underground is what residents have. Period.
“The amount of water that homeowners use skyrockets during the spring and summer, with lawn irrigation being the biggest reason why,” said Roslyn Water District Commissioner William Costigan. “When water demand increases by such a dramatic extent, we run the risk of over-pumping our wells, which compromises the health of our sole-source aquifer and places a tremendous strain on our infrastructure.”
The district’s Smart Controller Requirement, which started last year, is not optional. Any homeowner in the district’s service territory with an automatic irrigation system must have one installed. It’s the homeowner’s responsibility to get it done. The district isn’t coming to install it for you.
Smart controllers aren’t complicated. They connect to WiFi, read local weather data, and adjust your sprinkler schedule so you’re not soaking a lawn the morning after a rainstorm. The practical payoff is real: residents who switch can save up to 30% on water use during the warmer months. Costigan said these devices are the district’s best tool against excessive demand, and given that they tend to pay for themselves within a year or two through lower water bills, the argument against them is weak.
Still, the smart controller is only one piece of the puzzle.
Residents in the district also have to follow Nassau County’s Odd/Even Watering Ordinance. Odd-numbered properties water on odd-numbered days. Even-numbered properties, and properties without numbers, water on even-numbered days. Nobody waters between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. That midday window is the peak evaporation period, which means running sprinklers then wastes water rather than delivering it to your lawn.
The district goes a step further than the county ordinance. It runs a community-specific watering schedule that staggers demand across the service area throughout the day. Not every district does this. It’s a sensible approach to a real problem, because when thousands of irrigation systems kick on simultaneously, the distribution network feels it.
Here’s how the schedule breaks down. Villages of Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, and Roslyn Harbor water between 10 p.m. and midnight. The Village of East Hills runs midnight to 2 a.m. Villages of Flower Hill and North Hills, along with unincorporated areas of Roslyn Heights, Greenvale, Albertson, Glenwood Landing, and Port Washington, water between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Municipal properties run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Worth remembering: those windows are also constrained by the county’s no-watering rule between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., so residents need to keep both sets of rules in mind at the same time. Not exactly complicated, but you do have to pay attention.
This reporting follows coverage by Long Island Press, which first detailed the district’s spring conservation push.
The deeper issue here is one Long Islanders don’t think about enough. The aquifer isn’t just a resource for drinking water. It’s the foundation of the region’s water independence. Nassau County has spent years, and significant money, dealing with contamination issues in its groundwater. The Nassau County Department of Health monitors those conditions regularly. Wasting water through sloppy irrigation habits and over-pumping wells adds stress to a system that doesn’t need it.
A smart controller, a quick read of your house number, and a look at the district’s watering schedule. That’s all this takes. Costigan and the district aren’t asking for much. They’re asking for the minimum necessary to keep wells healthy and water bills from going through the roof every July.
Get the controller installed. Check the schedule. Water when you’re supposed to, not when it’s convenient.