GEORGETOWN, Texas — The City of Georgetown has enacted restrictions over water use as a result of increasing landscape and lawn irrigation.
Officials said that, on Sunday, the City's water utility reached 85% of water treatment capacity, marking three consecutive days. Thus, city leaders decided to enact Stage 1 of the Drought Contingency Plan starting on Tuesday.
During this stage, customers cannot water their lawns between the hours of noon and 7 p.m. Irrigation before noon or after 7 p.m. will help customers avoid the hottest daytime hours, allowing the water to reach the roots of their lawns.
“Our water customers should look to ensure they are not watering during the heat of the day,” Director of Water Utilities Glenn Dishong said. “Watering during the hottest part of the day results in significant evaporation and water waste. We are enforcing our watering rules with the goal of avoiding more serious limits, such as watering only one day per week.”
The City has also issued a scheduling system for watering:
- Addresses ending in 1, 5 or 9 are allowed to water on Tuesdays and Fridays.
- Addresses ending in 2, 4, 6 or 8 are allowed to water on Wednesdays and Saturdays
- Addresses ending in 0, 3 or 7 are allowed to water on Thursdays and Sundays
Stage 2 of the contingency plan is triggered when water use reaches 90% of capacity for three consecutive days. If water use continues to rise, further restrictions will be enacted.
As of July 17, officials said the city hit 90% two days in a row this week.
"One way is to encourage people to adjust their irrigation controllers down by 10 percent," city leaders said. "They can use the Seasonal Adjust setting on their controller to reduce their zone run times to 90%. If we could get customers to do that, it would help us avoid going to one-day-per-week watering."
For more information, visit water.georgetown.org or call 512-930-3640.
Coupland-based Manville Water Supply Corporation has also implemented water restrictions for all customers.
Outdoor watering for Manville customers is limited to two days a week, with odd addresses on Wednesday and/or Saturday, and even addresses on Thursday and/or Sunday.
Commercial and multifamily addresses can water on Tuesday and/or Friday.
No operation of irrigation systems or hose-end sprinklers is allowed between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Hand watering is allowed anytime.
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