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Cities served by the North Texas Municipal Water District will implement mandatory water restrictions over the next three weeks.
District officials met with member and customer cities on Friday to announce that it would be moving to Stage 2 of its drought plan. The goal of Stage 2 restrictions is to reduce water consumption by 5 percent. While every affected city’s drought plan varies, the primary provisions include limiting landscaping watering with sprinklers to twice a week and prohibiting watering during the day.
The district asked the cities to put restrictions in place by Aug. 19.
The district serves Collin, Rockwall and Kaufman counties, as well as northeastern Dallas County, including Richardson, Garland and Mesquite. It doesn’t include Dallas.
“Our water deliveries continue to increase,” water district spokeswoman Denise Hickey said. “We’re seeing that increase in delivery due to those triple-digit temperatures over multiple days and the ongoing drought.”
The district on July 25 set a single-day use record of 554 million gallons. That surpassed the previous record of 537 million gallons set last August.
The drought is compounded by the presence of zebra mussels in Lake Texoma. As state, federal and district officials have sought to curtail the spread of the invasive species, they stopped pumping water from Texoma to Lavon Lake. That cut off nearly a quarter of the district’s water supply.
Lavon and Jim Chapman Lake, the district’s other major sources of water, are also several feet below capacity because of the lack of rain.
This is the first time since the 2005-07 drought that the water district has implemented mandatory restrictions.
Richardson officials plan to get the word out about restrictions through temporary signs. Residents there have already responded to the voluntary restrictions in place since April.
“In May we had a 3 percent reduction in water consumption compared to last year, and it was down 12 percent from last year in June,” public services director Jerry Ortega said. “We think that’s pretty good.”
People in some cities will see little change. Frisco, for instance, will not alter its water efficiency plan’s summertime restrictions. Residents there are already restricted to watering just twice a week and prohibited from using their sprinklers during the day.
Frisco implemented its program in 2009 under the belief that using a consistent program would be easier than changing watering rules based on the weather — and while considering that drought conditions similar to 2005-07 would return.
“It’s the same every year, and it’s based on a typical North Texas summer,” public works director Gary Hartwell said. “We learned a lot from that drought, as everybody did.”
The North Texas Municipal Water District’s Stage 2 drought plan seeks to cut water consumption by 5 percent. Each city has its own plan, but district guidelines include:
Limit landscaping watering with sprinklers to twice a week
Prohibit watering from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Halt nonessential city water use
District officials met with member and customer cities on Friday to announce that it would be moving to Stage 2 of its drought plan. The goal of Stage 2 restrictions is to reduce water consumption by 5 percent. While every affected city’s drought plan varies, the primary provisions include limiting landscaping watering with sprinklers to twice a week and prohibiting watering during the day.
The district asked the cities to put restrictions in place by Aug. 19.
The district serves Collin, Rockwall and Kaufman counties, as well as northeastern Dallas County, including Richardson, Garland and Mesquite. It doesn’t include Dallas.
“Our water deliveries continue to increase,” water district spokeswoman Denise Hickey said. “We’re seeing that increase in delivery due to those triple-digit temperatures over multiple days and the ongoing drought.”
The district on July 25 set a single-day use record of 554 million gallons. That surpassed the previous record of 537 million gallons set last August.
The drought is compounded by the presence of zebra mussels in Lake Texoma. As state, federal and district officials have sought to curtail the spread of the invasive species, they stopped pumping water from Texoma to Lavon Lake. That cut off nearly a quarter of the district’s water supply.
Lavon and Jim Chapman Lake, the district’s other major sources of water, are also several feet below capacity because of the lack of rain.
This is the first time since the 2005-07 drought that the water district has implemented mandatory restrictions.
Richardson officials plan to get the word out about restrictions through temporary signs. Residents there have already responded to the voluntary restrictions in place since April.
“In May we had a 3 percent reduction in water consumption compared to last year, and it was down 12 percent from last year in June,” public services director Jerry Ortega said. “We think that’s pretty good.”
People in some cities will see little change. Frisco, for instance, will not alter its water efficiency plan’s summertime restrictions. Residents there are already restricted to watering just twice a week and prohibited from using their sprinklers during the day.
Frisco implemented its program in 2009 under the belief that using a consistent program would be easier than changing watering rules based on the weather — and while considering that drought conditions similar to 2005-07 would return.
“It’s the same every year, and it’s based on a typical North Texas summer,” public works director Gary Hartwell said. “We learned a lot from that drought, as everybody did.”
The North Texas Municipal Water District’s Stage 2 drought plan seeks to cut water consumption by 5 percent. Each city has its own plan, but district guidelines include:
Limit landscaping watering with sprinklers to twice a week
Prohibit watering from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Halt nonessential city water use
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