The Company With the Secret Weapon for Saving Water

by KYW's Lauren Lipton

How many of you have had this happen?

"I'm leaving my driveway at 5:30 in the morning to go to the gym and it's pouring rain and my sprinkler system is running."

This sprinkler episode bothered Bucks County native Walt Norley (right) so much that he started Advanced Sensor Technology, a company now based in King of Prussia, whose technology lets you know if you need to water the lawn or not.

"Ugmo. It stands for underground monitoring. It sends a signal to our sensor [bottom photo], and our sensor in the ground says, 'I have sufficient moisture, I don't need irrigation,' or 'I'm dry and I need water.' "

He says golf courses around the country are jumping on board.

"We just recently installed the system at Merion Golf Club [top photo] and Waynesboro Country Club. It's all about saving water. Most of country is in about a 50 percent drought."

Norley says Hall of Fame golfer Gary Player -- quite a conservationist himself -- introduced the product to the golf world:

"He told me the great story about staying at a Marriott when he didn't have a stopper in his sink when he was shaving and couldn't believe all of the water that was going down, and was just wasted,.  And he ran down in his skivvies to tell the hotel manager."

And why is the office here?

"We moved the office from North Palm Beach to King of Prussia about two years ago. I was elated to get back to the community. There is something about the Philadelphia pretzel and cheesesteak that drove me back."

And that's Positively Philadelphia!