Thursday, April 22, 1999
Water use limits may be tightened with revised
drought ordinance
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
Abilene homeowners would be limited to watering their yards
one day per week under a revised drought ordinance the City Council
is expected to consider next month.
Other changes agreed to by a citizens panel Wednesday include
raising the fines for violations of the ordinance, banning charity
car washes, easing water restrictions for restaurants and triggering
the rationing measures earlier in a drought.
Council members will be briefed on the recommendations today.
City staffers expect the council will vote on the amended ordinance
May 20 and that it could take effect June 1.
“They’ve tightened the ordinance a bit,” water
official Linda Simpson said after Wednesday’s three-hour
workshop. “The group felt committed to everybody doing their
part. (Water rationing) is a sensitive topic, and they handled
it sensitively.’’
The recommendations are meant to reduce usage so the city can
avoid pumping what little reserve remains in Fort Phantom Hill
Lake, Abilene’s primary water source. The city has not pumped
from Phantom since November, instead drawing water from Hubbard
Creek Lake.
However, the two pipelines from Hubbard can carry only 31 million
gallons per day, far below peak summertime demands. On Tuesday,
the city pumped 26.6 million gallons.
Much of Wednesday’s debate revolved around landscape irrigation,
the water issue most likely to affect the largest number of Abilenians.
Water usage nearly doubles in the summer as homeowners pour the
life-giving liquid on their thirsty lawns.
Currently, the first stage of the ordinance allows property
owners to water their lawns from 9 p.m.-10 a.m. every sixth day.
Believing the rotating schedule would confuse most people, group
members favored a seven-day schedule that would assign each household
a day for irrigating.
The panel briefly flirted with a twice-a-week watering schedule,
but feared it would do little to reduce usage.
“Come June 1, we’re going to have to put the hammer
down,” City Manager Roy McDaniel said. “If we’re
going to have to go to once a week, which we know we’re going
to have to do, we might as well do it now.”
In stage one, water customers would also be allowed to irrigate
vegetation with a hand-held hose or drip system. New lawns can
be watered for eight minutes four times a day for two weeks.
In stage two, watering is allowed only with a hose, five-gallon
bucket or drip system.
All outside watering is prohibited in stage three.
“If everybody will give up a little bit, we can all make
it,” McDaniel said. “If we do stage one and two right,
we may never have to get to stage three. And if we get to stage
three and your grass dies, that’s tough.”
Water officials are still wrestling with when each stage should
be triggered.
Each phase is initiated by Phantom lake levels. The elevations
will be heightened, meaning stage one may take effect when the
lake is 14-15 feet below the spillway rather than the current
16 feet.
The lake is about 15.5 feet below the spillway.
While the ordinance now calls for minimum fines of $50 per
violation in stages two and three, the citizens panel recommended
increasing the penalties.
In stage one, residential violators would pay $25 and commercial
offenders $75. In stage two, the figures would jump to $50 and
$100. In stage three, the levies would rise again to $100 for
homeowners and $300 for businesses.
People would still be able to wash their cars with nozzled
hoses and buckets in their driveways in the first two stages,
but charity car washes would be banned.
“When we’re at this stage, that’s too much wasted
water,” real estate agent Kathy Webster said.
Commercial car washes would be required to reduce their water
consumption by 15 percent compared with the previous year.
Not wanting to punish businesses whose revenue stream depends
upon water, group members scaled back car wash restrictions slightly.
“We all need to do our part,” said Susan Cummins,
owner of Double Eagle Car Wash. “If you’re in business,
we’ve got to be a bit more lenient as long as we can. The
crux of our business is water.”
Water Utilities Director Dwayne Hargesheimer agreed. “Industry
and business should be protected. The bulk of it is excessive
irrigation and waste,” he said.
Other businesses that use water in their production processes
must reduce water usage 10 percent in stage two and an additional
10 percent in stage three. Industrial businesses and golf courses
would be required to submit water use plans to Hargesheimer for
approval.
Aware the city must set a good example for its water customers,
Tom Martin, a landscape architect with the city parks department,
suggested the city stop watering its grassy lands save for the
playing fields.
Perceptions also motivated the group to nix a prior requirement
that restaurants serve water only if requested by a customer.
Its members reasoned that few eateries serve water unless it’s
ordered and that the restriction could lead people to believe
the city is running dry of drinking water.
Still, no one was downplaying the seriousness of the drought,
which has reduced runoff into Phantom to record lows.
“We’ve got to prepare for the worst-case scenario,”
McDaniel said. “With this ordinance, we’re trying to
get through this summer. And while I’m hoping, I’m hoping
it never comes into play and that it starts raining.”
Anthony Wilson can be reached at 676-6734 or wilsona@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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