Austin's Ministry of Water Preparing Major Crackdown

According to the Statesman, the City of Austin is generally failing to enforce the Water Use Management Ordinance, despite having received over a thousand complaints about violations. Only three citations have been issued so far, all to commercial users. Under the ordinance, commercial and multifamily users can only water on Tuesday and/or Friday year round, residential users with odd-numbered addresses can only water on Wednesday and/or Saturday from May 1 - September 30 and residential users with even-numbered addresses can only water on Thursday and/or Sunday from May 1 - September 30. No one can water between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., except with hand-held hose.

With the Edwards Aquifer currently in Alarm Stage Drought and no end in sight for the heat, it seems clear that officials are merely biding their time before they start issuing citations for every mis-timed sprinkler in the city. If you would like to inform on a suspected water-criminal, click here.

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By Shawn Shillington in News on June 27, 2008 10:56 AM 0 Comments

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ducknutz

I wish the neighborhood association would get off my ass about my grass. It's practically dead and looks like shit. I keep trying to blame the city, but it ain't working.

Shawn Shillington

I mentioned to the fact that the Edwards Aquifer is in Alarm Stage Drought as an indication that our area is generally low on water. I was not trying to imply that enforcing this ordinance would do anything to fix that. Personally, I don't think issuing citations (or putting ads on the radio) is an effective way to reduce water use. I agree with Mike that increasing prices for heavy users would be a much more effective (and cost effective) method.

atxval

The article is referring to the "City of Austin is generally failing to enforce the Water Use Management Ordinance," not "the surrounding cities are failing to enforce the Water Use Management Ordinance." All I was pointing out that city doesn't rely on the aquifer and therefore the city is not responsible for its depletion. However, I do support water conservation because LCRA, Austin's water supplier, will be dry soon.

mdahmus

But who may be reading this article and who definitely think of themselves as "in Austin".

atxval

Very true! Who are once again not on the City of Austin's utility.

mdahmus

And the tens of thousands of people outside city limits in the roughly south and southwest direction who draw from private or shared wells.

atxval

Ok you can also point your fingers at Kyle and Buda who are not under the City of Austin's utility service.

Barney Noodles

We have a nice lawn half ot he year, watering it once a week, but come summer, it gets brutalized and we just give up. why even waste the water if it won't keep it green. on the other hand, there is a meth addict down the street who waters 3 times a day with a butt in her mouth and her yard is emerald!

hey meth junkie, what are you doin?

cuttin my grass with a pair of nail clippers

hey meth junkie, what are you doin?

watering every blade of grass in my yard.

maybe i'll report her. but i bet her pit bull would bite me.

mdahmus

City of Austin doesn't, but many of our suburban hangers-on do extract from said aquifer. Especially the southern ones.

atxval

FYI Austin does not use water from the Edwards Aquifer. We can all point our fingers at San Antonio for draining that resource. Good job San Antonio. Austin use surface water for its water.

mdahmus

As usual, environmentalists could USE the market to accomplish their goals, but are too afraid of being labelled a cruel capitalist to do it.

my crackplog from 2006 still applies: your incentive right now as a homeowner is to water as much as you possibly can every Wednesday and Saturday (or whatever your days are) because the price for each gallon is still ludicrously cheap. That's just stupid; there ought to be stronger incentives to conserve, period - just start charging more for each gallon of water AND make the rates go up a lot more steeply in a lot more increments the more you use.