New Alternate Day Watering Law Goes in Effect in Cary & Surrounding Areas on Monday NR
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 27, 2000
NEW ALTERNATE DAY WATERING LAW GOES INTO EFFECT
IN CARY & SURROUNDING AREAS ON MONDAY
CARY, NC – Year-round alternate day outdoor watering begins on Monday for residents and businesses that use water from the Cary-Apex Water Treatment Plant in Cary, RDU, and the Wake County portion of RTP. After lengthy discussion and deliberation at their regular meeting on April 6th, the Cary Town Council voted 4-3 to approve the alternate day watering plan, but because Apex is part owner of the water plant, the town cannot be required to abide by the Cary law and, thus far, has not indicated an official plan to join the water conservation program.
"The primary purpose of the new watering plan is to help assure adequate water supply for fire protection, necessary domestic use, and necessary system reserve by reducing peak demand on the water system," said Cary Town Manager Bill Coleman. "Coupled with Cary’s other water conservation initiatives, alternate day watering can also help the environment by reducing pollution of creeks and streams by reducing runoff."
Under the new law, outdoor watering of grass, gardens, bushes, and other landscape materials is limited to three days a week depending on the property’s street address. Water outdoors those properties with odd number street addresses—such as 315 Main Street--only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Even number addresses –such as 316 Main Street--may water outdoors only on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. NO OUTDOOR WATERING IS ALLOWED ON MONDAYS. The new law includes outdoor hand watering as well as outdoor automated watering with irrigation systems and sprinklers. The law does not affect outdoor washing of any kind.
Where there is no clearly defined street address—such as with the entrances to subdivisions--, the Town-issued address for the water meter should be used as the watering schedule address for that location. In cases where two or more meters with both odd and even addresses serve the same system or irrigated area—such as sometimes happens with apartment buildings--, the even address should be used to comply with the alternate day watering schedule.
In enforcing the new law, town officials plan to start out by giving a warning notice to those found to not be following the program. Citations will follow for subsequent violations, carrying civil penalties of $100 for the first citation, $250 for the second, $500 for the third, and $1,000 for each subsequent citation. In addition to or in lieu of civil penalties, violation of the alternate day watering law is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable for each violation by a fine of up to $500 and/or incarceration for up to 30 days. And if all else fails, the Town Manager has the authority to suspend a customer’s water service—in whole or in part—if he determines that an imminent water emergency exists and/or that the customer has failed to comply with the alternate day watering program on numerous occasions.
"Obviously, the Town’s goal is to have citizens support a fair and reasonable outdoor watering program; our goal is not to collect fines or cut off water service or put people in jail," said Coleman. "We have an enforcement plan in place in case it’s needed, but we know the vast majority of our citizens will do the right thing.
Because of the long-term water-saving benefits of using drought-tolerant landscaping materials, water customers establishing warm-season grasses--Zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine, Centipede--may apply for temporary exceptions to the new alternate watering rule during the months of May, June, July, and August. However, no watering exceptions will be given for establishing Fescue grass until September 15th since the appropriate time to try to start Fescue is in the fall.
In addition to officially limiting the number of days for outdoor watering, officials continue to encourage all water customers to utilize wise water practices whenever they irrigate—no more than one inch of water, once a week, including rainfall.
To ensure that all Cary-Apex water customers are aware of the new law, Cary has launched its annual comprehensive public education campaign—Beat the Peak 2000. In addition to articles in its BUD newsletter and a heavy presence on the web, the Town last week mailed postcards to all Cary water customers explaining the alternate day program. The postcards, which feature two Cary High School twins and a dog, also began appearing as ads in local newspapers, and similar television commercials will begin running on local broadcast morning news programs next week as well as radio announcements during "drive time" on public radio. The newspaper ads and television commercials will continue for the next six months. Also as a part of Beat the Peak 2000 will be postcard like ads on the tops of delivery pizzas and on eating trays in local fast-food restaurants. The postcard ads will also be shown before this summer’s movies at the new Cary Crossroads Theaters.
Last year’s severely hot, dry summer led Cary to take a number of water-saving measures for the first time since restrictions were imposed in July 1995. On June 4, 1999 Cary declared mandatory odd-even watering restrictions for outdoor irrigation. On June 9th, Cary officials were forced to tighten restrictions by banning all outdoor irrigation as system demand continued to skyrocket and supplemental water supplies from Raleigh and Durham were reduced from normal levels. That ban was eased on June 10th when officials began allowing direct watering of plants, shrubs, and gardens using hand-held devices on the odd-even schedule. Because of construction on the Durham and Raleigh systems, this level of restrictions remained in effect until July 26th when Cary’s restrictions were eased to allow the use of sprinklers and irrigation systems from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM on the Odd-Even schedule. Restrictions were totally lifted on September 22nd following the rains of Hurricane Floyd.
The maximum capacity of the Cary-Apex water system is about 22.7 million gallons per day (mgd). Of that, the Cary-Apex plant provides 14.7 mgd; 4.5 mgd is provided by Raleigh and 3.5 mgd comes from Durham. On June 5, 1999, system usage peaked at about 21.4 mgd. Typically, the Town uses about 12.4 mgd’s on a yearly average.
For further details on the alternate day watering program or any other water conservation issue, call 469-4090 or visit www.townofcary.org.
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| PRIMARY CONTACTS: | Kim
Fisher, PWUT Director, 469-4092 Rob Bonne, Utilities Division Director, 469-4303 Jennifer Platt, Water Conservation Specialist, 462-3872 Bill Coleman, Town Manager, 469-4002 Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, 460-4951 |
