The city of Brownwood issued a press release on Thursday that outlines more details on the Stage 2 water restrictions and the consequences.
To protect and preserve the water supply of the City of
Personal Outdoor water use is prohibited between 12 noon and 6 pm. Outdoor water use includes all watering of lawns, washing of cars and decks, etc.
Water waste is prohibited. Water waste is defined as allowing runoff in the streets or alleys, over watering of lawns, filling of swimming pools, or leaking pipes that are not repaired.
Penalties include two warnings, by door hanger or house call followed by water turned off with reconnection fee. Our goal is to educate and help our citizens to have a good yard and all the water they need for a normal lifestyle by promoting wise use of water available.
6-22-2011– Officials from area water providers in Brown County announced Wednesday that they will put outdoor watering restrictions in place this week due to the low level of Lake Brownwood.
The Brown County Water Improvement District (BCWID) enacted Stage 2 of their drought contingency plan on Wednesday which will allow their wholesale water customers (cities of Brownwood, Bangs, Early, Santa Anna as well as the Brookesmith SUD and Zephyr Water Corporation) to initiate their own Stage 2 plans on Thursday.
Dennis Spinks, General Manager of the BCWID, said all of these water providers who resell water from Lake Brownwood will initiate mandatory outdoor watering restrictions starting Thursday.
“Any water that comes out of Lake Brownwood is going to be regulated,” Spinks said.
All of these water providers met on Wednesday afternoon to coordinate the restrictions. The restrictions for these water providers call for all outdoor watering to take place between 6pm and noon daily. All outdoor watering between noon and 6pm is prohibited. In addition, the restrictions prohibit wasting water by allowing water to run into the streets.Spinks said that each water reseller will be watching for violators and issuing harsh consequences.
“If you do water during that time frame, you will receive a warning; you will receive up to two warnings, and the third instance you will be disconnected,” Spinks said.
Spinks also said that the same warning system will apply to anyone found to be wasting water.
“No wastage of water from the watering of the lawns and landscape will be allowed,” said Spinks. “If water is running down the road, you will get two warnings. Anything else that would be considered a wastage of water, you will get warnings and the third time you will be cut off.”
Spinks said that all of the area water suppliers will be working together to enforce the new restrictions.
“Everybody is going to be looking whether it is the police department, street crews, any of our crews,” Spinks said. “If they see any violations on this, they will be notifying the entity that is servicing the individual and it will be dealt with.”
Spinks also wanted to remind area businesses to be mindful of timed sprinkler systems that are programmed during the day and that officials will be watching those as well.
“They will be contacted and told to reset their timers to the time frame we are looking at, and that will help,” Spinks said.
Water used from Lake Brownwood for irrigation purposes has had bigger cuts and the district is looking for more during the Stage 2 restrictions.
“We have reduced irrigation by 20% so far,” Spinks said. “Our plan calls for a 25% reduction in irrigation use. That will be in effect as soon as cities enact their plan also.”
Water providers in the area initiated Stage 1 of their drought contingency plan last week and asked the public to cut water usage back by 6%-10% or face these Stage 2 restrictions. Spinks said overall, they saw about a 4% reduction in water use from customers.
The water district and the wholesale customers will continue to monitor water use over the next two weeks, and if they do not attain at least a 6% reduction in water use from customers, harsher restrictions may be put into place.
“This is what we are starting with,” Spinks said. “If this doesn’t get the 6% reduction, then we are going to place more strict restrictions on them so we can achieve the 6%. We are going to monitor it for approximately two weeks. “
Water customers should be receiving notices in the mail soon regarding these Stage 2 water restrictions. Brownwood’s Director of Public Works, David Harris, said that Brownwood city water bills would be mailed this week which will help notify their customers.
Harris said the Brownwood officials will be watching their water usage and enforcing the warning system that Spinks described.
“If customers do what they need to, but conserve water, we’ll try to work with them,” Harris said. “Blatant wasting could result in loss of water service.”
Harris explained that the City of Brownwood saved an overall amount of 400,000 gallons of water in the last week, which is more than enough to service the whole city of Bangs for more than a day. Bangs’ typical water usage is 300,000 gallons/day.
“A little conservation can do a lot,” stated Harris. “People can make a difference.”
Spinks said that Lake Brownwood is currently 12.2 feet below spillway level which is 1412.8 feet mean sea level. At 1410 feet, BCWID would enter their Stage 3 drought contingency plan which would call for more water use restrictions. Looking forward, that could happen in the next couple of months if Brown County does not get significant rain.
“The latter part of July, the first part of August we will go to Stage 3 if we do not get sufficient rain,” Spinks said.
The new restrictions however could delay that, depending on the impact on water use.
Spinks said that right now, Lake Brownwood has sufficient water to serve customers, but they will be monitoring the levels closely.
“We still have 50% of our capacity, but who knows when this (the drought) is going to end,” Spinks said.
Area water customers are encouraged to contact their water supplier for specific questions about the restrictions.
