Groundskeepers Strive for Peak Irrigation Efficiency

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Oaa 307 Ab Rainfall was already lagging 30 inches behind the 12-month norm when drought conditions spiraled out of control last July in Mesquite, Texas. For two solid weeks, high temperatures topped 105 degrees, baking the city's clay-based recreational sports fields as if they were in some giant meteorological kiln. Fractured soil and patches of brown turf characterized many fields - the usable ones. And in a cruel bit of irony, updates to the in-ground irrigation system at one of Mesquite's multipurpose venues had bared so much soil to the blazing sun that cracks on that field measured a full 12 inches wide and three feet deep, exposing the system's brand-new wiring strung 18 inches below the playing surface and rendering the renovated tract useless for the entire baseball and football seasons.

Leagues were shuffled among satisfactory game sites, and seasons shortened. Some associations took to filling cracks themselves to keep fields playable. Practicing on game fields was strictly prohibited. "Everyone had to make sacrifices," says Mesquite park services superintendent Travis Sales. "That's the only way we were able to work around it."

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