Oceanside takes second in conservation contest

OCEANSIDE

The city of Oceanside won second place in the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation. The annual competition involves several thousand cities throughout the country promoting environmental stewardship, drought resiliency and watershed protection.

The high winning score was the result of the participation of hundreds of Oceanside residents who pledged to save water and protect the environment or worked on environmental projects from home to earn points for Oceanside in the nationwide monthlong competition in August. The city of Oceanside announced the results last week .

Several city partners, including nonprofit groups, businesses, schoolteachers and homeowners associations came together to promote environmental stewardship and joined the call to action to inspire residents to use water, electricity and other resources wisely.

Oceanside finished behind the city of Lakeland, Fla., which took first place. Oceanside has participated in the contest for three years, winning sixth the first year and third place last year.

The challenge typically receives 600,000 to 700,000 pledges a year.

Mayor’s Challenge participants across the country pledged to save more than 1 billion gallons of water, 74 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 29 million fewer pounds of waste headed to landfills.

Residents can start accumulating points for Oceanside in next year’s challenge by documenting their watersaving efforts and doing environmental projects in their home or backyard. Hands-on water projects range from fixing leaky faucets and toilets, washing only full loads of laundry and using sprinklers on minimal settings before 8 a.m. to collecting rainwater, planting a tree and participating in a neighborhood cleanup.

Oceanside residents can log in water-saving activities at wylandfoundation.org/mywaterproject and earn bonus points that will be applied to next year’s challenge.

Visit GreenOceanside.org.