On Your Corner. In Your Corner: City of Coppell encourages residents to conserve water
COPPELL (CBSNewsTexas.com) - The City of Coppell is the latest North Texas municipality to implement watering restrictions as extreme heat continues to take a toll on the metroplex.
Starting Monday, Coppell utility customers may only irrigate on specified days. According to the city, it's the first time in at least 10 years Coppell has had to implement Stage 2 of its Water Conservation Plan.
The city says it's not experiencing a water emergency but wants to encourage residents to do their part to conserve under drought conditions.
Water use in Coppell reached maximum volume for several days last week, and the city couldn't completely refill its water tanks. That triggers mandatory watering restrictions for the city's 13,500 customers.
- Water customers, including residential and business customers, with even-numbered street addresses (street addresses ending in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8) must conduct all watering on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
- Water customers, including residential and business customers, with odd-numbered street addresses (street addresses ending in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9) must conduct all watering on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
- Schools must conduct all watering of school sites, school facilities, and other areas maintained by the schools on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
- Homeowner associations (HOAs) and commercial property owner associations (POAs) must conduct all watering of common property on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
- Nursery (garden and landscape) businesses are not restricted when watering business inventory; however, they must comply with watering requirements for any landscaping associated with their facilities.
"Know where your water is coming from," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. "If there are restrictions in place, pay attention to those. Be cognitive about how you're using your water. Don't waste it."
Fuchs says everyone in North Texas should be trying to conserve water right now.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows various parts of DFW falling within the Abnormally Dry to Severe Drought range.
"All in all, I do see more types of these restrictions coming to fruition because the outlook doesn't look too favorable," Fuchs said. "Some of these areas have had quite a bit of dryness over the last few years as well, so it's not something again that one or two rain events is going to cure everything."
The cities of Desoto, Ponder, Heath and McLendon-Chisholm also have varying water restrictions in place.