The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) Board of Directors recently voted to remain in Stage 2 of the NTMWD Water Conservation and Drought Contingency and Water Emergency Response Plan until further notice. Sprinklers or irrigation systems may be used no more than two days per week, as needed.Consumers are urged to temporarily turn off their sprinkler systems and skip watering if their area receives rainfall within a couple days of a scheduled watering day.
Under the Stage 2 water restrictions, sprinkler or irrigation systems are prohibited from operating between the hours of 10am and 6pm, however consumers are allowed to use soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems for up to two hours on any day for foundations and trees. Consumers should check with their city for specific restrictions and watering guidelines for your community.
Also included in the Stage 2 provisions, the NTMWD Member Cities and Customers must continue to meet or exceed the 10% water use reduction goal.
“The rainfall we have received this year along with water projections and meeting our water use reduction goals has put NTMWD in a position to remain in Stage 2,” said Jim Parks, Executive Director of NTMWD. “While our primary reservoirs are in good shape for this time of the year, we are still unable to use Lake Texoma, 28% of the total NTMWD water supply, due to the infestation of an invasive species, the zebra mussel,” Parks added.
NTMWD does not expect to resume pumping water from Lake Texoma until a pipeline extension from Texoma to the water treatment plant in Wylie is completed in the fall of 2013. Extending the NTMWD’s water supply during Stage 2 through the efficient use of existing water resources is crucial to meeting the long-term water needs of the more than 1.6 million people served in the NTMWD’s service area.
More information and tips on water conservation can be found at www.wateriq.org and www.ntmwd.com.