Cities focus on water conservation

Summer has finally hit the West Plains, and many people are turning on their sprinklers, hoping for lush green lawns or watching their children run through the cool water.

Depending on where you live, that might not be such a good idea. In one case, running your sprinklers during certain hours of the day could get you a hefty fine.

“We do it because it’s very inefficient to water in the heat of the day,” said Doug Ross, city administrator of Medical Lake. He said that during the day, the water sprinkled in lawns tends to evaporate quickly. He added that the restrictions also give the well a chance to catch up with the reservoir and doesn’t have to be running non-stop during summer months.

In Medical Lake, residents are prohibited from watering their yards between the hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week during June, July, August and September.

It’s not only the residents that have to abide by these restrictions which are enforced by a city ordinance. All city and school yards are also subject to the restrictions.

The city’s code enforcement officer will be on the lookout for folks watering their yards during the daytime. The first violation may result in a warning, and the second violation may result in a $250 fine per day.

It’s the second year in a row Medical Lake has imposed these restrictions. Ross said the city looked into water restrictions in states such as Nevada or Arizona, parts of the country that have many more water concerns than Medical Lake does. Some cities in those states not only restrict watering during those hours of the day, but only allow residents to water for one day a week. Residents of Medical Lake can water every day, just not between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

In Cheney, where the potable water supply has been a concern in the last few years, residents aren’t restricted by when they water their lawns, but Don MacDonald, the public works director, said that public yards are a different story.

“At this point, we will more than likely reinstitute the practice we have used for the past couple of years, whereby the city and Cheney School District take turns irrigating their lawns so one day the city is irrigating and the next day the school district is irrigating in order to limit the demand on the potable water supply,” MacDonald said in an e-mail. “We generally have been able to maintain adequate reservoir levels during peak demand by restricting irrigation between the two largest irrigators (city and the school district).”

He added that the contractor in charge of drilling well 8 should begin the week of July 7.

MacDonald hopes to have the well completed by late August. When that is done, the city will bring in a contractor to build a well house and install the pumps and it is hoped well 8 will be up and running by the end of the year.

“Having said that,” he added, “we also want to start focusing more of our attention on ways to promote conservation.”

Airway Heights has no restrictions in place as of yet, but it does have a rate structure that is based upon how many gallons of water the customer uses.

Albert Tripp, city manager of Airway Heights, said for a single-family residence users are charged $1.62 per 1,000 gallons of water used for those residents that use zero to 9,000 gallons a month.

For those residents that use 10,000 to 22,000 gallons a month, the city charges them $1.95 per 1,000 gallons. If a resident is using more than 22,000 gallons of water a month, the rate is $2.41 per 1,000 gallons.

For industrial and commercial buildings, the rate is seasonal, with $1.91 per 1,000 gallons of water charged during the months of October through April.

The rate goes up to $2.87 per 1,000 gallons from May through September.

For those customers with special irrigation accounts, the rate varies by season as well: $1.91 per 1,000 gallons from October through April and $3.64 per 1,000 gallons from May through September.

Tripp said the City Council is also considering a proposed ordinance regarding water usage based on conversations many cities throughout Spokane County are having.