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| Updated: 7/03/2012 4:12 pm |
Published: 7/02/2012 9:12 pm |
Update from Maumelle Water Management:
Once a week watering is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Customers are asked to water on the same day their trash is picked up. The only exception is for people who have trash pickup on Tuesday or Wednesday. Maumelle Water says those customers may water this upcoming Thursday.
As soon as Well #12 is back on-line, Maumelle Water will evaluate and may allow twice a week watering. Watering will be limited until the capacity of the system is back up to 6.7 million gallons/day.
Those residents who are unwilling to comply with the watering restrictions will face sanctions. On the first offense, the homeowner will be asked to turn off the system off or have the system turned off for them.
On the second offense, Maumelle Water will lock the meter or pull the meter completely. A second offense will be considered meter tampering and there will be a $200 charge to restart the service
Up until Monday, people in Maumelle have used six-million gallons of water a day, most of it on their lawns. But right now, the City only has a capacity of about five-million gallons of water a day.
Plus, it has to have enough for firefighters to save homes and lives.
“Is it your grass burning up, or do you want to take the chance of your house burning up?” asked Barry Heller from Maumelle Water Management Monday night.
Right now, Maumelle faces a water emergency. It does not have enough water for people to use sprinklers because two of Maumelle’s ground wells are broken.
“We don’t want any watering for two days,” says Heller.
The outdoor watering ban does not sit well with many neighbors who packed Monday night’s city council meeting who’ve paid thousands to make their yards beautiful.
“When you said 25-thousand dollars, Mr. Heller, you were very correct. And, I don’t want to particularly bear the brunt of a 25-thousand dollar loss,” said homeowner Phil Bullingham.
”I’m not a horticulturalist or botanist or whatever, but I’m pretty sure they’re not going to die in eight days,” said Heller about the shrubs.
Since people don’t want their lawns and plants ruined, Water Management almost expects some to violate the ban.
“What you want to sneak out and do in the middle of the night, that’s between yourself and your conscience and whatever your neighbors will put up with,” says Heller.
So when can you start watering your lawns again? Thursday. But here’s the catch: you’re only allowed to water on your trash pick-up day. Once a week until Water Management fixes the wells, which could happen late next week.
If you violate the ban, your sprinkler system will get shut off permanently and you’ll have to pay a 35-dollar reconnect fee.
