Clarendon enacts Stage 4 drought rules

The Clarendon City Council enacted Stage 4 of its Drought Contingency Plan during its regular meeting last Thursday, April 10.

The council agreed to set Monday, April 21, as the effective date for the Stage 4 restrictions to give the city time to notify citizens.

The Stage 4 action follows a request by Greenbelt Water Authority, which in March asked its member cities to reduce their water consumption as the authority itself went into its own Stage 4 Drought Plan.

City council members discussed at length the need to encourage conservation as Greenbelt deals with the surface water shortage.

Alderman Ashlee Estlack said the city’s measures as they are written do not seem very strict, and the council agreed that it could come back and strengthen the restrictions in the future.

The council discussed that residents and commercial properties who have private water wells are not covered by the Stage 4 restrictions. The city is, however, working to get official signage that private well owners can use to identify that they are not using municipal water at those locations.

City officials say there are about 100 private wells in the city and more than 800 municipal water accounts. The Clarendon Aquatic Center is on a water well also.

Mayor Jacob Fangman encouraged residents to take the water shortage seriously, and Alderman Eulaine McIntosh encouraged educational efforts to help people conserve water.

“We need to be proactive about this,” Fangman said.

City officials also discussed looking into what it would take to upgrade the city’s electronic water metering system so residents could have real-time information about their water usage.

Highlights of the Stage 4 restrictions include the following:
Irrigation of landscaped areas is limited to designated watering days between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight by means of hand-held hoses, hand-held buckets, drip irrigation, or permanently installed automatic sprinkler system only. The use of hose-end sprinklers is prohibited at all times. Residential customers with odd-numbered street addresses water on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Residential customers with even-numbered street addresses water on Thursdays and Sundays. Commercial customers water on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Washing vehicles not occurring on the premises of a commercial carwash and commercial service stations and not in the immediate interest of public health, safety, and welfare is prohibited. Further, such vehicle washing at commercial carwashes and commercial service stations shall occur only between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

Avoid filling swimming pools except during the above watering hours.

Avoid operating ornamental fountains unless necessary to support aquatic life or if equipped with a recirculation system.

Do not water-wash driveways, sidewalks, and other hard-surfaced areas. Do not wash down buildings or structures except for immediate fire protection.

Prior to enacting Stage 4, aldermen first reviewed and renewed Ordinance 391, which spells out the city’s drought plans, and changed the trigger language to reflect the reservoir elevations used in the Greenbelt drought plan. Stage 4 is implemented when Greenbelt Lake’s mean elevation above sea level hits 2615 feet.

On Tuesday, the elevation was 2614.61 feet, which is down slightly from a week ago when it was 2614.67 but still higher than two weeks ago at 2614.55. The lake is still currently at 9.0 percent capacity.

The Hedley City Council was planning to meet on April 16 to discuss drought plans as the Enterprise went to press. Check ClarendonLive.com for more information.