I recently learned about Leander joining the bandwagon with the Stage II Restrictions on water usage. I jumped over to their web page and read the whole thing, nervously, because I had watered on Sunday. Turns out Sunday is NOT our day to water (oops). I had to laugh at what they’re calling a restriction, though, because the whole thing is waaay better a situation for our lawn than the previous watering schedule.
Declaration of Stage II: Mandatory Water Conservation MeasuresThe Lower Colorado River Authority has instituted Stage II Mandatory Water Conservation Measures for its wholesale water supply customers including the City of Leander. Water use reduction goal is to achieve a 10% – 25% reduction in water use.Triggering Criteria: LCRA Water Management Plan trigger level is reached (900,000 acre-feet combined storage of Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan).
Mandatory Measures:
1) Supply Management Measures:
a) Water all utility-owned landscaped areas only by means of handheld hose or drip irrigation.
b) Discontinue water main and line flushing unless necessary for public health reasons; and
c) Keep customers and the news media informed about issues regarding current and projected water supply and demand conditions.2) Demand Management Measures:
a) Watering schedule:
Residential: Odd addresses = Wednesday and/or Saturday
Even addresses = Thursday and/or Sunday
Commercial: Tuesday and/or Friday
Midnight – 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Midnight
b) Exceptions to watering schedule:
1) hand-held hose
2) faucet-filled bucket or watering can of 5 gallons or less
3) drip irrigation system
c) New landscapes installed must have an approved variance
d) Washing motor vehicles, such as: motorbike; boat; trailer; or airplane may only be done during watering days and hours, and must utilize a positive shut-off nozzle on the hose.
e) Fill, refill, or add water to swimming pools, wading pools, or Jacuzzi-type pools only on designated watering days and hours.
f) Operation of fountains or ponds is prohibited, unless utilizing a recirculating pump, or supports aquatic habitat.
g) Fire hydrant water is limited to fire fighting, unless special permit is granted from LCRA water utilities for construction use.
h) Golf course irrigation of fairways and roughs on designated watering days and hours. Greens and tees allowed every other day. If alternative water is used as only source no restrictions apply.
i) all restaurants are encouraged to serve water only on request.
j) Non-essential uses prohibited at all times: Washing hard paved surfaces; washing structures (except for immediate fire protection); dust suppression; flushing gutters; allowing substantial amounts of water to run-off and pond to a depth of ¼ inch or greater; failing to repair a controllable leak.
The part that concerns us is 2a.
The good news is that now we can water every 3 or 4 days (say it rains on a Saturday evening… the next opportunity is Wednesday which is four days later at the longest) as opposed to 5 days. The city had a 5 day watering schedule before this crazy so-called restriction which meant that if it rained on one of your watering days, you had to wait 5 days to water again. At any rate, the quality of our lawn this summer over last summer is amazing. Consistency pulling weeds in addition to the turf weed-n-feed plus some bermuda seed and the St. Augustine taking off… woah! We might have the lawn of our dreams in just a few more years, and for just the price of watering (no sod!)
The old watering schedule had residential watering divided up by house number (addresses ending in 1 and 5 water on such-and-such days, ending in 2 or 6 get such-and-such days, 3 and 7 … 4 and 8… etc.) so that on any given day of the week, only a few houses on each street were allowed to water. With this new “restriction” now half the street can all have their sprinklers on at the same time and the other half can have them going on the next day. That seems like a lot more water being used than the complicated 5 day schedule we were on previously. And I’m just talking about grass. I realize, though, that in the grand scheme of things, this probably means a lot more restrictions for the CITY and the BUSINESSES (i.e. no more sprinkler parks/fountains/water attractions) which in turn saves water. Don’t worry; I don’t have my panties in a twist over this. I just think it’s weird. Weird that we have the opportunity to be allowed to water our lawn more frequently when we need to be watering it less frequently. You know, when I stop and think about it, Austin really is weird.
