Victoria has been lucky this year when it comes to water. Healthy rainfall patterns in our region earlier this year helped us to avoid the drought restrictions that we usually see during the summer. However, dry conditions upstream these past couple of months have caught up to us, and we need to start making some changes to save water.
Lately, the flow has been hovering around 150 cfs, which is considered “low flow” for this time of year under the terms of our Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit. Once the river drops below this stage, we have to stop pumping, and we enter Stage II of our drought contingency plan.
Of course, the river still rises above this threshold from time to time, and when it does, we can pump a limited amount of water and gradually refill our off-channel reservoirs. However, in order to maintain the water levels in our reservoirs, we must continue to limit our water usage until the river can rise above low flow and stay that way for 14 consecutive days.
The drought contingency plan is divided into stages of increasing restrictions based on how much we want to decrease our water usage. These regulations are designed to keep our water usage within our means without placing an undue burden on residents’ quality of life or livelihoods.
During Stage II, we should use 5% less water than we normally do. At this stage, certain types of water use are limited to 6-10 a.m. and 8 p.m.-midnight. When you run a sprinkler during the heat of the day, you can lose as much as 50% of your water to evaporation, so doing it during cooler hours is very helpful.
Activities that are limited to these cooler hours include using an automatic lawn sprinkler or hose-end sprinkler, filling pools and washing vehicles (although this rule does not apply to commercial car washes and service stations). Residents can water their lawns with hoses at any time of day, as long as the hose has a positive shut-off nozzle. To read all of the rules, visit www.victoriatx.gov/droughtplan.
At the end of the day, water is a limited resource, and regardless of whether we are in a drought, residents should be mindful of their usage and avoid being wasteful. One tool that can help is WaterWise, our no-cost water monitoring service that keeps track of your water use and can even alert you to hidden leaks and similar issues. To learn more, visit www.victoriawaterwise.com.
Residents can also save water by using modern appliances, repairing leaks and not overwatering their yards. If you are trying to keep your soil wet to protect your foundation, just watering around the edge of your house will do the trick.
We are all connected to the same river, and we can weather this drought if we all watch our water usage. If you see your neighbor running a sprinkler in the middle of the day, remind them to do their part to save water during this dry weather. To report a violation of the drought restrictions, you can contact Public Works at 361-485-3380.
Ken Gill is the City of Victoria engineer/director of Public Works.