Water World: All in one
Company: DLC Resources
Location: Anthem, Ariz.
DLC Resources already handled the maintenance in the city of Anthem, Ariz., when it was tapped to revamp the irrigation system as well.
“The city already made the huge investment to use smart controllers five to 10 years ago, and the next thing is to go through the irrigation system and bring it back up to snuff,” says Mark Dalley, director of water management at DLC Resources. “There are even some cases where, over time, the incorrect heads were installed. There were different types of brands in the same zone, and we wanted to make sure all those were uniform.”
Anthem is a master-planned community partially located within Phoenix. It’s built on 5,856 acres at the base of Daisy Mountain and Gavilan Peak. DLC is responsible for the upkeep of 73 acres of turf.
“When we were awarded the Anthem contract, the client wanted to increase the quality in the turf, in part, because they have a lot of sports fields,” Dalley says.
From September 2020 to April 2021, between three and six DLC irrigation technicians replaced every sprayhead; straightened, leveled and adjusted all the community’s grades; and reprogrammed the existing Weathertrak controllers to fit the updated system.
All in all, Dalley says the irrigation renovation will help save between 15 and 20 million gallons on the site per year.
“It was getting back to basics and fixing the infrastructure so we could use the existing controllers that were there,” Dalley says.

Photo: DLC Resources
DLC Resources is responsible for 73 acres of turf in Anthem, Ariz., including several sports fields.

Photo: DLC Resources
DLC Resources was tapped to handle the irrigation in Anthem, Ariz., in part, to help keep the turf in better condition.

Photo: DLC Resources
An after shot of the properly irrigated turf.

Photo: DLC Resources
A mismatched and mismanaged irrigation system led to serious turf damage before DLC Resources stepped in.
