City Discusses More Restrictions on Water Use

San Angelo City Councilman Rodney Fleming wants to restructure the city’s watering schedule, making it more restrictive despite the recent rains. Right now the city allows outside lawn watering twice every seven days. Fleming suggested restricting watering to once per week. His reasoning? To “train” lawns and conserve water.

“I don’t mind being a leader in west Texas on what we should do with water and how we should save water,” Fleming said as he anticipated a presentation from Riley. Riley didn’t really have a presentation planned for this particular discussion but said he would be willing to discuss the issue.

“One of the things that’s brought up to me over and over again is that one third of all water that we use that’s residential is used on our lawns,” Fleming said. “In the summer months it is actually a good bit more than the one third we use on our lawns. Most people water two to three times more than what they actually should water.”

Fleming said that he has consulted with area experts on lawn care and that the consensus among them was that by changing watering habits to once weekly, lawns will be more deeply rooted making them hardier.

“You should train your yard to only have to water it heavily once a week, it would actually cut down on the amount of water we are using twice a week,” Fleming said.  “Now a lot of people water very heavily twice a week, making the root system not go as near as deep as what it should go.”

Fleming proposed once-a-week watering in the summer months and twice every two weeks in the winter time. He says if the residents start watering in that manner, healthier lawns will be seen all over town.

The amount of rainfall the area has received recently has helped as far as water conservation by watering lawns go, but Fleming reminded everyone of the water crisis last summer.

“The best time to water your lawn right now is between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. in the morning,” Fleming said. “I would like to see some education to the public on watering lawns and conservation.”

Riley replied that the watering schedule the way it is now is set up based on the water supply, but that it is something that could be looked at as far as changing the ordinance.

Riley said that San Angelo has about 40 months of water supply to date. Last year at about this time San Angelo’s water supply hovered around 12-14 months of supply.

“When you’re looking at a town of 100,000 plus people that’s a very scary thing,” Fleming said. “My thing is, I’m trying to be a good steward and do the right thing for my kids and grandkids and future generations. Anything we can do to save water I’m all in favor of.”

The rejuvenation of the long-dormant Water Advisory Board was discussed, and it seems that collaboration between the board and city council will happen soon.

“I think we all have a lot of trust in their ability, they were selected based on very specific areas of expertise,” said Liz Grindstaff. “I would like to see what they say. I think we are going to be talking about water for years.”

There was discussion about the importance of educating the public on appropriate watering practices.

Daniel Valenzuela, the city manager, suggested that San Angelo coordinate with sister cities like Abilene, Midland and Odessa on water conservation since the four have a water source in O.H. Ivie in common.

Mayor Dwain Morrison added that he attended a meeting last week in Big Spring with mayors from surrounding cities, including Snyder, Abilene, Midland and Odessa to discuss the shared O.H. Ivie source. He said it was decided that regional meetings would be held to allow opportunity to come together on water conservation issues.

“This is a west Texas problem, not only a San Angelo problem,” he said.  

The latest water supply report is for lake levels on July 9. Here are the levels:

San Angelo’s water system on July 9 was using 34.85 acre-feet per day, or a rate of 12,720 acre-feet per year.

The City is currently in “standard conservation,” which restricts outside watering to twice every seven days at no more than one inch per application. Watering is prohibited between noon and 6 p.m. Runoff of more than 150 feet down any street, gutter, alley or ditch is also prohibited.

Under current city ordinance, more restrictions on water use cannot be implemented until water supply is declared to be under 24 months (it’s at 40 right now).  At that point, the city will be in Drought Level 1.

To understand the degrees of water conservation currently mandated in city ordinance, see this link.

In order to implement Fleming’s ideas, a new ordinance will need to be adopted.

Other city council items

Among the many topics on the agenda was the expense for the water pilot test to be conducted on direct potable reuse to add to the city’s water supply.

“Is this 1.2 million set in stone or has it gone down,” Johnny Silvas asked Bill Riley, Water Utilities Director.

Riley said that the amount is just an estimated cost at this point and summarized what exactly the test is.

“What you are doing is actually creating a small scale version of what the ultimate facility would be to treat the water,” Riley said. “So there would be engineering cost, equipment either purchased or leased, there’s monitoring costs as you treat and test the water. It’s just basically going through the same process you would have ultimately, but then there’s a lot of reports that have to be generated to the state and those things. So that’s the whole process.”

The council approved spending $1.2 million on it.

Sgt. Korby Kennedy was remembered. Each council member thanked the community for their overwhelming support during what was most certainly a loss felt by the entire city.