Residents Asked to Stagger Irrigation Start Times

Water usage was down by 20 percent citywide on Monday to about 20 million gallons. This may indicate that residents are getting the message to use less water and to avoid any outdoor watering on Mondays, which serve as a “re-charge” day for City water storage tanks.

Mayor George Garver talks about the water supply and conservation at a news conference at Lake Georgetown on July 17.

However, on other days, water use is still approaching the capacity of the water treatment plants, leading to low pressure in some areas. While mandatory restrictions may be needed if there is no rain, reducing your frequency or duration of outdoor watering will help to stretch our supply of water in Lake Georgetown, Stillhouse Hollow Lake, and the Edwards Aquifer. Each source is dwindling every day.

In addition, to help reduce the peak demand on the pumping capacity of the water system that is occurring in the early morning hours as a result of irrigation systems, the City is asking residents with automatic irrigation systems to follow a staggered schedule based on the last digit of your home address. Staggering should occur in two ways.

First, residents are asked to water no more than three days each week, with a schedule based on the last number in your home address:

Odd addresses water on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
Even addresses water on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday

There should be no outdoor watering on Monday. If you water once or twice a week, choose your days or day according to the above schedule. You should water between the hours of 7 p.m. and 10 a.m.

Second, residents with automatic irrigation systems are asked to set the system start time to correspond to the last digit of your street address. For example, if your house number is 7903, the last digit is 3, so you should set your irrigation system start time to 3:00 a.m.

Use the following schedule for setting your irrigation system start time:

Note that all times are early morning times with two exceptions: 8 corresponds to 8:00 p.m. and 9 corresponds to 9:00 p.m. With a normal irrigation program cycle of two or three hours, this allows residents to keep their watering times in the 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. window in order to minimize evaporation from the hot sun. As long as overnight low temperatures are above 72 degrees, watering in the evening hours should not lead to any fungus problems in lawns.

The above schedules are for irrigation systems. Watering with a hand-held hose or bucket can be done on any day between the hours of 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. If you water with single sprinklers that are attached to a hose and must be moved manually, then water according to the odd and even three-day schedule between the hours of 7 p.m. to 10 a.m., but it is not necessary to follow the irrigation start time schedule for automatic irrigation systems.

If the extreme drought continues, more stringent restrictions on water use may be required in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if residents can follow these guidelines to stagger outdoor watering times and water no more than three times each week, the water system will be better able to meet the demand.

“Our customers are in the driver’s seat,” says Glenn Dishong, water services director for the City of Georgetown. “We’re appealing to everyone to follow these guidelines to ensure that we all have the water we need all day long for drinking, washing, and other everyday uses.”

If you would like assistance with re-setting your irrigation controller, or if you have other questions, call the Georgetown Utility Systems 24-hour number at (512) 930-3555 or send an email to gus@georgetowntx.org. For more information on water conservation and the water use situation, go to water.georgetown.org.