Water Conservation

Water, water everywhere, and here we are telling you about conserving water and about drought preparedness.

Sounds sort of silly, but just consider all that is involved in cleaning up the water to make it meet current drinking water standards and regulations. Water supply systems which deliver the water to your homes are very costly and create strict limits as to how much water we can distribute to our residents and businesses and still have enough water to fight fires when they occur. This does not even touch on the process of creating drinkable water and where it comes from.

Conservation Steps

In an effort to avoid activation of the Drought Contingency Plan we are asking residents to conserve water and help us manage the water demand by following these easy steps. Following these steps all year will aid us in managing water demand and help you in conserving water.

Residents at odd-numbered addresses:

• If you water 3 days a week, you should water Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
• If you water 2 times a week, you should water on Wednesday and Sunday,
• If you water more than 3 times a week please consider reducing your watering to conserve water, and at a minimum set your timer to complete watering before 2:00 a.m.

Residents at even-numbered address:

• If you water 3 days a week, you should water Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
• If you water 2 times a week, you should water on Tuesday and Saturday,
• If you water more than 3 times a week please consider reducing your watering to conserve water, and at a minimum set your system timer to water before 2:00 a.m.

Watering on different days will assist us in managing the water demand by spreading the demand over more days.

Irrigation Conservation Tips

• Water the lawn in the early morning (Before 2:00 a.m.) and late evening hours (after 9:00 p.m.).
• Check your irrigation system to verify that your water is going on the lawn and not on your sidewalks, driveways, streets or walls. You may need to adjust the spray angles on the sprinkler heads.
• Check your irrigation system through an entire cycle to verify that your water is staying on the lawn and soaking in, and not running down the street. You may need to water for a shorter time period and possibly more frequently allowing for the water to soak in and not run down the street.
• Check your irrigation system for leaks:
  • Turn on each area and walk through the area served to verify no water is running out of the ground, or shooting straight up into the air. You may have a broken pipe or a damaged sprinkler head.
  • With the irrigation system off for at least 30 minutes, check each sprinkler head and verify that no water is coming out of the sprinkler head, if the water is coming out of the sprinkler head this indicates that one of the valves is not closing completely.
  • Shortly after the irrigation system turns off walk through the yard looking for sand or dirt washed up by the sprinkler system this will indicate a leak in an underground pipe.

The Message

The water conservation/drought contingency message is Do Not Waste Water. Use what you need but do not allow water to be wasted. This single item will make the biggest difference and will help us to achieve our water conservation goals. Please take the time to verify that your irrigation water is not running down the street.

More Information

View the city's Water Conservation - Drought Contingency Plan (PDF) and visit the Drought Information page for our latest drought notifications.