(Avoca) Regional Water Rural Water District has declared “Level Yellow”, the second of a system of progressive levels within its Emergency Water Conservation Plan. It announced today that the following mandatory nonessential water usage restriction measures are to be observed by the users of its Avoca Treatment Plant Distribution System effective immediately. These restrictions are in response to the continued system pressure issues which began on May 25th.
The affected area includes members and customers of the Regional Water Association in rural Shelby, Audubon, Cass, Harrison, and Northern Pottawattamie Counties. Included are the communities of Avoca, Portsmouth, Westphalia, Kirkman, Tenant, Exira, Persia, and Brayton. Arrowhead Park and Campground is also included in the affected area.
Municipal, residential, agricultural, commercial, and industrial users will be required to observe the following mandatory reduction measures:
- No outdoors watering or irrigation of any kind between the hours of 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. No watering or irrigation of lawns whatsoever. Watering of flowers, vegetable gardens, trees or shrubs less than four years old, and new seedlings and sod is permitted once per week, with an application not to exceed one inch and only between the hours of 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM.
- No car washing is allowed, except at commercial establishments that provide that service as their only means of income. In these cases, hours of use will be restricted to 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
- No water shall be used to fill private swimming pools, children’s wading pools, or similar articles.
- No water shall be used to clean streets, driveways, sidewalks, etc.
- Large volume water users, including industries, motels, hotels, eating establishments, and livestock confinements may be requested to scale back services and/or production.
- Schools are strongly urged to cancel their physical education activities and inter-scholastic competitions that require showers or attract crowds and take other actions to reduce water consumption.
The system is working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to resolve the situation. For more information, please contact the Regional Water Office at 712-343-2413.
“The lack of precipitation and persistent drought conditions is certainly taking its toll on shallow
well water production systems,” said Doug Reed, Pottawattamie County Emergency Manager.
Reed commented that “We’re at the point (with the environmental conditions) that voluntary
water conservation compliance is not having an impact in reducing water demand. With wells
running extremely low they just can’t recharge quick enough under current use demands.”
Water customers in the identified areas are strongly encouraged to implement the mandatory water use reduction measures to avoid a situation where further use restriction measures would have to be implemented. Depending on your location within the affected area, failure to comply with the restrictions could result in the assessment of use surcharges by the utility or potential civil and criminal penalties where municipal ordinances may have jurisdiction.
