After a brief respite, Austin is back in stage 2 watering restrictions. What that means for residential customers with automatic sprinklers is that you must go back to only having your system run once a week. However, the city has made some good modifications to Stage 2, including allowing an exemption for tree soakers and vegetable garden watering systems, and also allowing an additional day of lawn watering by hose end sprinklers. Here’s a handy chart:
The City of Austin is implementing Stage 2 water restrictions starting Tuesday because of declining lake levels, but the rules will be slightly different than before.
“The combined lake levels between Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis has been the trigger,” Austin Water Utility spokesperson Jason Hill said. “It looks as if those two lakes combined will hit that 900,000 acre-foot trigger or go below it in the next week or so.”
The Lower Colorado River Authority says the lakes are currently 45 percent full and contain about 905,499 acre-feet of water. One acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre one-foot-deep in water. It amounts to 325,851 gallons, or enough to supply two to three households for a year….