A small Texas city west of Austin remains under tight water restrictions amid a significant drought. After days of being at the highest emergency level for water conservation, officials said Monday that those restrictions have only slightly been loosened, limiting water consumption to “indoor use only” until further notice.
Nothing in the article about agricultural use.
If I’m reading their USDA census data correctly, over 2/3 of the entire county is used for farming (336,688 acres). Of which 79% is pastureland.
I also wonder whether that city has any golf courses. If so, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll be exempt too
The city is saying no outdoor use at all: https://m.facebook.com/blancocityhall?fref=nf&ref=embed_post
Is there any enforcement if the golf course turns their sprinklers on anyway?
Typically, yes. They issue citations and increasing levels of fines for each violation, and they disconnect your water if you don’t respond or pay in a timely manner. How quickly they respond to reports and how often they issue citations varies by city. Some cities even employ patrol units to enforce violations during severe drought conditions. Some cities aren’t giving out warnings at all anymore but going straight to citations/fines.
But what about the lawns?!
Water restrictions vary by city, but landscape irrigation is indeed restricted. Usually they go up to stage 4, which typically limits to watering once a week or once every 2 weeks.
Apparently stage 5 is defined by the city as indoor use only: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/city-of-blanco-stage-6-water-restrictions/269-22171b66-f29b-4e1a-b57a-9e434ecf34c1
Blanco county is currently at stage 3, which limits watering from 7-10 AM or PM and not at all on non-watering weeks. https://www.txwaterco.com/water-conservation/drought-management/blanco-county-drought-conditions
Interestingly, they include hand watering in the restrictions. My city has designated days and times you are allowed to water, but hand watering is allowed at any time.
Insanity. And they keep building more homes.
Texas legislature outlawing local water restrictions in 3, 2, 1…
That would be extreme even for Texas. Texas has laws in place to prevent HOAs from prohibiting water conservation efforts such as xeriscaping, growing native grasses instead of exotic, rain barrels, etc. Most of Texas undergoes drought restrictions already. If we didn’t, we would certainly run out of water. Banning water conservation would be stupid even by Texas standards.
Granted, Texas also does stupid shit such as restricting water usage in communities while pumping out that same water to sell to 3rd parties.