water bans

[glo]

Does your town have a water ban. SInce I moved 8 years ago to the town I live in, there has been a water ban every dang summer. It starts usually at the end of May and extends into Oct. Every year it ends up beeing no lawn watering, no car washing, no pool filling and the kids can't use sprinklers The exceptions are that if you have a veggie garden you can water it.

This year we had record snowfalls...this Spring has been the wettests in many years. We have had over 4 inches in less than two weeks with 1 of those inches falling last Saturday. I think we had maybe 5 sunny days or so all of May

So someone explain to me why they put the water ban signs up around our town? The phase has not been added or the dates, but there is no way that we could be that bad off


Are there other places this bad? DO you guys have water bans every summer?

 

[Mskanga]

We have always heard of droughts but never have had actual water bans, actually the only thing they tried to enforce was no car washing or watering lawns last year. But let me tell ya....if I hear anything about droughts this summer, I will have the biggest hissy fit a human being can have. As of now we have had over 100" of snowfall this winter, our reservoirs and rivers are way above normal levels, we have had flood watch warnings for weeks now , the ground is super saturated . I don't want to hear anything about droughts!!
I want nice weather!!!

 

[honeywolf7]

I definitely don't think we'll have one this year (but it will be the first year in a while that we haven't.)

 

[Steve H.]

We usually have one by mid to late-Summer. Usually it doesn't go as far as banning all car washing and lawn sprinkling, but usually limits those activities to certain times of the day.

So far, the way the summer has started, I can't imagine we'll have one this year, but who knows?

 

[glo]

our lakes and rivers are high here too...Our town has well water and is to cheap to add another well, but the wells are never to capacity and they are this year. I was just shocked to see the signs out

 

[ToyStory Fan]

I think at last check the resevoir's here were at or over 100%. Hasn't been that high since '96 I think.

 

[gina2000]

Glo, do you live in a vacation town? The population may grow so much during the summer that the ban is the only way they can effectively manage the water supply versus the population growth.

If that's the case, they need to build more resevoirs.....

 

[glo]

No, not at all Gina...my darn little town is growing by leaps and bounds, and then they go and put up a hotel because ENC a BIG computer company is two towns over. You would think they would drill for another well. We still have a few cow pastures here and horse stables here.

Never since I have lived here have the wells been to capacity, that is what I do not understand, and the forecast still has rain in it

 

[caitycaity]

So someone explain to me why they put the water ban signs up around our town? The phase has not been added or the dates, but there is no way that we could be that bad off

even when you have a lot of rain, you still sometimes can have a deficit. i don't claim to be an expert, but i heard here on the radio some guy explaining how it all worked out. especially, when you have droughts that last longer than 1 year -- sometimes the deficit is so big that a lot of rain in a short period of time doesn't help. so maybe that is why.

 

[Ratpack]

Had them in the past few years but not this year, or at least I hope not. They have officially called the drought over down here. We have gotten over 32" of rain this year so far and last years total for the year was like 41".

 

[doxdogy]

We have water restrictions. It usually entails not being allowed to water your lawn between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. Sometimes they even go only being allowed to water on certain days of the weeks. Usually even number addresses on one day and odd the next day. But, we have had rain three days in a row this week. Rain this morning and more on the way.

 

[Jenzebelle]

The reason why there is still a water ban is because they most likely don't want to run into another criticial drought situation because of people using excessive amounts of water.


We didn't have a water ban last year in my particular water district, but a good portion of the state, and nearby towns in MA did. This year they are going to assess the situation next month.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

just lawn waterng limits here,most just gave up again this year

 

[newmousecateer]

The only type of ban we have here is that you are only allowed to water between 6 - 10 a.m. and 6 - 10 p.m.

 

[katerkat]

I agree with Caity (and did I tell you how nice it is to see you back?)

I did a story on the Virginia water ban last year, so I'm now an expert.

Even with rain, the lakes and such may be high, but often times, the ground water is not being replenished. Especially with heavy, heavy rains -- it tends to run off rather than sink in. So despite the rains and snows, the water table isn't high enough. Even though the water YOU see is high. (You being the generic you.) I was told by one of those "water experts" last year that Virginia would need 8-10 good hurricanes over a several-year period to really replenish the ground water supply.

Of course, you could come live in the swamps of Mississippi, then you wouldn't have any restrictions!

 

[Kelsie]

It's been terrible here We can water 2 days a week, 15 minutes a zone. We are also paying an additional sur-charge for water. Last year, there were no campfires allowed in the state. Hopefully, we can avoid that, this year.

Although we have had a lot of snow this year, it will take us years to recover from the past 3 years.

 

[Mamu]

Hi Glo, I was posting about this on the F&G Forum. While we were getting 2 inches of rain the town was implementing our annual water ban Effective June 1st. You can water flower and veggies every other day with a hand held hose, lawn and car washing once a week by precinct. All watering needs to be before 9am and after 5pm. Absolutely no watering on Sundays.

I guess their predicting a dry summer, with all the rain we are getting I sure hope it dries out a little, I tired of wet feet.

 

[glo]

Mamu.....

I just drove through town and it is set up by precint? Is this the same or are we now by days? This is insane...

 

[CourtasanSatine]

lots of people gave up hope on lawns again this year,the limts don't help things but after last summer(a flood) I'm not too big on flood warnings

 

[Disney Ella]

I called the water company just last week to see if it was okay to fill up a small above ground pool we got for the kids. No water restrictions at all for the first time in several years! Now if it would just get warm enough for some swimming.