ASSOCIATION NEWS - AUGUST 2026

2026 Water Conservation Innovation Award Winners

On July 24, 2026, the Florida Irrigation Society presented one company and a government agency with their prestigious Water Conservation Awards for their efforts to conserve Florida’s water resources. Receiving the top residential conservation award was Sunrise Irrigation of Palm Harbor and the City of Cape Coral, Fl received the Government Entity/ Non Profit Organization award.

City of Cape Coral - Winner, Agency or Organization that has shown initiative in some way to impact the irrigation industry

The 2026 Water Conservation Award in the category of Government Agency/Non-Profit Organization was presented to the City of Cape Coral, Fla for the development and implementation of a new ordinance for the installation of irrigation systems within the city limits.

Accepting the award at the Florida Irrigation Society’s 2026 Florida Water Summit, Cape Coral Utilities Director Jeff Pearson stated, “We extend our sincere thanks to the City of Cape Coral staff, members of the Florida Irrigation Society, and the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association for their time, expertise, and collaborative efforts in developing the City’s new water conservation ordinance."

This ordinance represents an important step toward responsible water management and long-term sustainability for Cape Coral. We appreciate everyone who contributed their knowledge and perspective to help develop practical conservation measures that will benefit our community for years to come.”

FIS president, Mike Prevost, in announcing the award stated, “It was a unanimous decision of the FIS Board to select the City of Cape Coral for its precedent setting water conservation ordinance. The City’s Utility Department worked in collaboration with FIS members and other organizations to develop workable regulations for contractors, the city, and the public to adopt that will best serve the community. Our expectation is that other counties will follow Cape Coral’s lead when developing their own ordinances.”

Sunrise Irrigation, Palm Harbor, FL - Winner, Residential Award

Most applications submitted for this award describe a single large-scale project — a commercial irrigation system redesign, a municipal reclaimed water conversion, or a major institutional installation. The impact of those projects is concentrated, visible, and easy to communicate. This application was different.

What the nomination presented was not one project. It was the cumulative result of thousands of individual residential service calls — each one a homeowner with a broken sprinkler head, an aging pressure wasting spray body, or a rotor zone running at higher-than-optimal pressure. Taken individually, none of these jobs would qualify for a water conservation award. Taken together, they represent a water savings impact comparable to the largest single-project submissions this award has ever received.

"Taking the irritation out of irrigation for residential clients has become nominee’s motto. They believe that this model, serving one homeowner at a time, across an entire service region, is the most scalable and impactful way to improve overall water conservation in our state."

Between June 2025 and June 2026, the Sunrise technicians installed pressure-regulating spray bodies and rotor bodies on residential irrigation systems across Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Sarasota, Lee, and Orange counties — seven Florida counties spanning the full breadth of the Tampa Bay market. These were not large commercial installations.  They were routine residential service calls: a homeowner reporting an issue, a technician identifying pressure problems during a system analysis, a maintenance visit that identified worn equipment. In each case, the repair included the installation of pressure-regulating spray heads or rotors that will permanently reduce water consumption for the life of that sprinkler head. The numbers tell the story. In one year, across 9,653 individual residential service events, the company installed 21,610 pressure-regulating spray bodies and 7,779 pressure-regulating rotor bodies — a combined 29,389 heads. Applying a rigorously derived, conservatively estimated per-head water savings figure to each installation and prorating for the time each head has been in service, the total projected water savings delivered to date is 10,330,987 gallons.  That is more than ten million gallons — from residential irrigation repairs!