PENDLETON — Pendleton Parks and Recreation has installed a new, high tech irrigation system to save time and resources in watering city parks.

The Hunter Industries’ Hydrawise Irrigation Control System uses smart technology to automatically control irrigation amounts based on programmed settings, according to a press release Friday afternoon, March 3, from the city. Parks Supervisor Todd Kligel said the new system will help limit wasted water because it can automatically adjust to weather conditions.

“With the previous system, unless we went out and manually changed it, it didn’t matter if there was rain or if it was 100 degrees out, it watered,” he said. “With this new system, we can set it so if we have a half inch of rain, it won’t water for the night. We can make sure we aren’t overwatering.”

As part of the new system, the city is installing Hydrawise smart irrigation controllers, or “clocks,” at all city parks. Each controller has sensors to monitor ground conditions. The new system installation cost about $25,000, but Parks and Recreation Director Liam Hughes said with 22 city parks and thousands of sprinklers, the water — and cost — savings will add up quickly.

“One of the biggest savings is going to come from the water plant,” he said. “If you’re watering in the middle of a monsoon rain, that’s a lot of gallons we could be saving.”

In addition to the automatic sensor control, the Hydrawise System also allows parks staff to edit irrigation parameters and to control the systems remotely by cellphone. If a leak is reported, for example, staff can remotely shut off the water to that park and investigate.

The new system is not the first time Pendleton Parks and Recreation has installed a remote management system for irrigation. Because visiting each park site would be very labor intensive, the city installed a system that used VHF radio signal controlled by the Parks and Recreation Shop. However, parks without a geographic line of site to the shop could not connect to the system. Hughes said about half the city’s parks were connected with that system, but it has become cost prohibitive to replace and repair.

“Every time you have to fix one of those clocks, it’s hundreds of dollars,” he said. “These new clocks were cheaper than the price of fixing the old ones, they have more abilities, and we can now connect to all of the parks, which is a huge benefit.”

Hughes said the new system should be a savings in both hardware purchase and in water use.

Most of the new system clocks have been installed, but those are not yet operating. Pendleton Parks and Recreation expects to begin the irrigation system at the end of March or beginning of April, weather depending.

For more information about Pendleton parks, including a map of park locations, visit tinyurl.com/5fh8mk43.