Greening Austin Daily

Reporting Watering Violations by Calling 3-1-1

14th September, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

I wrote about this earlier, but recently the City enacted Stage 2 watering restrictions, which for many of us may affect how often we water our laws (now only once a week permitted) or when we wash our cars.  Here’s a quick list of the highlights:

• Watering allowed 1 day per week for all Austin Water customers
• Hand-watering allowed anytime
• No automatic-irrigation after 10 a.m. on designated watering day
• Vehicle washing on designated day before 10 a.m.
• No charity carwashes
• No automatic fill valves for pools or ponds
• No outdoor fountains except to provide aeration for aquatic life
• No water to be served at restaurants unless requested
• No washing of sidewalks, driveways, parking areas or other paved areas

You can report violations by calling 3-1-1, which I did for the first time this week and it was very easy and the City worker I spoke to was  efficient and friendly.  I happened to be driving to work and an apartment complex had their sprinkler system on, and several of the sprinkler heads were watering the street and passing cars rather than the grass, which is a violation.  I called 3-1-1 from my car and quickly gave them the info.  First time offenders just get a warning, which hopefully should make people feel less bad about calling in and reporting water violations, as in many cases the violator probably just doesn’t realize they are doing anything wrong.  In the case of the apartment complex I called in about, I’m sure they just weren’t aware their sprinkler heads got realigned to point the wrong direction and  thus were wasting water, and will be happy to fix it.