Set your automatic sprinkler system to follow the Stage 2 watering schedule. To ensure you are not wasting water, be mindful of leaking faucets, pipes, and irrigation systems operating with misdirected or broken sprinkler heads.  Wasting water is prohibited year round in Austin, and there is much you can do to conserve water and detect water-wasting leaks. Our detailed Frequently Asked Questionscan give you more details.

Stage 2 Water Use Guidelines

• Residents may only water outdoors once a week. Homes with odd-numbered addresses can water on Saturday, even-numbered on Sunday.
• Businesses and multifamily units may only water outdoors once a week. Those with odd numbered-addresses can water on Tuesday and those with even-numbered addresses can water on Friday.
• Automatic sprinklers can only operate before 10 a.m. on your watering day. Hose-end sprinklers can be used before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.
• Hand watering can be done at any time on any day of the week.
• If you wash your car at home, do it on your watering day before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.
• You must use a hand-held bucket or a hose equipped with a shutoff nozzle; you may use a waterless cleaning product or a commercial carwash to wash your car on any day at any time.
• No charity carwashes are permitted unless a waterless cleaning product is used instead of water.
• No ornamental fountains may be operated except to provide aeration for aquatic life. Automatic fill valves for pools and ponds must be turned off as well.

Watering Schedule Variances

In some limited situations, we may grant a variance from the outdoor watering schedule during Stage 2 restrictions, which take effect September 6, 2011. All variances must be specifically requested on the form provided by Austin Water. Please note that applicants must follow the watering schedule in effect until a variance application is approved.

Violations

Violations of mandatory watering restrictions will result in an official warning followed by a citation if the violation is not corrected. Citations will be issued in Municipal Court with fines starting at $475. Report any violations by calling 3-1-1.

Just unscrew the old shower head, using some pliers and old towels if necessary, then remove any old pieces of teflon tape, using your fingers or an old toothbrush:  The wind some new Teflon tape onto the threaded pipe (wrapping clockwise):

Then screw on the new shower head. Easy!

A low-flow shower head can cut the amount of water you use in your shower by 30%!  If your shower fills a one-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds, you may want to replace the showerhead with a water-efficient model.

Here are 100 other water-saving tips.

For the first time in nearly a year, parts of Central Texas are now considered to be in “moderate drought,” improved from the highest level of “exceptional drought” of just a few months ago.

The easing of drought conditions comes after several soaking rains. But a wide swath of the Hill Country has seen less rain and is still among the state’s most parched areas….

Still, area lakes, which provide most of Central Texas with drinking water, remain far below normal levels.

The latest drought monitor report, released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center and drawn from data recorded on Tuesday morning, shows that about 14 percent of the state — and no areas in Central Texas — remains in exceptional drought.

Almost 88 percent of the state was in exceptional drought as recently as early October….

Central Texas needs about 10 to 13 inches of rain in the next three months and at least 19 inches of rain in the next six months to be out of drought…”

Last night’s storms brought much-needed rain to Central Texas but did little to ease an ongoing drought or to raise lake levels.

The rains overnight helped replenish streams and helped ease fire concerns, but a long-term period of showers and storms will be needed to break the drought.

“If we go through another three weeks of no rain, it’ll all go away,” said Pat McDonald, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Central Texas needs as much as 13 inches of rain to reach normal rainfall levels, McDonald said.

The article also noted:

Lake Buchanan is currently about 23 feet below normal January levels and about 30 feet below its full level …[we need] 10 to 20 inches of rain … to return the lakes to normal levels.

From the Statesman:

Preliminary findings from the [Texas] Energy Institute’s study released Wednesday suggest there is no link between the extraction operations and groundwater contamination, said the study’s leader, Charles “Chip” Groat, a UT geology professor.

He noted that the dangers associated with shale gas drilling — which is accomplished by hydraulic fracturing, a process commonly known as fracking — are largely the same as other oil-drilling operations.

“Hydraulic fracturing doesn’t seem to be of concern to groundwater,” Groat said. “If there has been water contaminated related to shale gas development let’s not look at fracturing, let’s look at surface processes.”

As in other types of drilling operations, poor casing or shoddy cement jobs have often been to blame for regulatory violations or contamination in shale gas drilling, Groat said…

Surface spills of the hazardous chemicals across the country have killed livestock and contaminated waterways, the Houston Chronicle has reported.

Texas is home to one of the nation’s largest shale gas deposits, the Barnett Shale. The Fort Worth area is a hotbed for fracking that shale, and there have been many questions surrounding the process.

Democratic state Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth told The Associated Press in September that in the past five years, air pollution in North Texas has steadily increased, which he said is related to the drilling in the Barnett Shale.

Groat downplayed the problems associated with fracking.

“The violations that we’ve seen are of no, minor or small impact,” Groat said. “The impact on groundwater, the impact on the surface is not of anything substantial, certainly not compared to coal mines or metal mines.”

However, spills have come under closer scrutiny as shale gas drilling occurs in urban and suburban areas, Groat said.

“Fort Worth is the poster child for this,” Groat said. “They are drilling under subdivisions, and those people are asking questions.”

Shale deposits are spread out over broad areas, and drilling operations could easily move out of densely populated areas and stay in the fracking game, Groat said.

Groat briefed government officials, regulators, energy company executives, community group representatives and reporters in Fort Worth about the Energy Institute’s preliminary findings.

Researchers expect to present their final report early next year, looking not only at the environmental effects of fracking but also at policy and regulatory issues as well as media coverage of the controversial technique of capturing natural gas.

The yearlong $330,000 study was paid for entirely by the University of Texas, Groat said.

The study’s early stages have looked at regulatory violations and frameworks in states with major shale drilling operations, including Texas, Louisiana, New York and Pennsylvania, Groat said.

And from NPR

In a draft report (pdf) released today, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed what many residents of Pavilion, Wyoming have been complaining about for some time now: Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is responsible for polluting the area’s drinking water.

Fracking is a controversial method used to make it easier to extract natural gas, petroleum and other substances. As the AP explains, this is the first time the EPA has linked the practice to the contamination of drinking water. The gas industry has denied any responsibility.

The wire service adds:

“The EPA’s found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath a Wyoming community where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals.

Health officials advised them not to drink their water after the EPA found hydrocarbons in their wells.

The EPA announcement has major implications for the vast increase in gas drilling in the U.S. in recent years. Fracking has played a large role in opening up many reserves.

The industry has long contended that fracking is safe, but environmentalists and some residents who live near drilling sites say it has poisoned groundwater.”

Before issuing this report, the EPA had advised residents not to drink their water, because, as MSNBC says, the EPA “said it had found benzene and other hydrocarbons in wells it tested.”

MSNBC adds that Pavillion residents welcomed the report.

Once it opens in April 2012, the new Palms Car Wash will have the ability to recycle 100 percent of the water it uses.

Austin’s second full-service Palms Car Wash is under construction at 13695 US 183, next door to the former Hooters of Austin, which is being transformed into Cover 2 restaurant and bar. The car wash will feature an exterior drive-thru express wash and interior and detail services. Customers may also use 12 vacuum stations free of charge.

“We want to be as eco-friendly we can,” said David Beseda, co-owner of Palms Car Wash with Russel Moore. “We use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners. It is a complicated, expensive process [to recycle water].”Beseda and Moore own the Palms Car Wash at 6811 Brodie Lane. Alone, Moore owns several car wash locations in Austin, but this is the second location the pair will have opened.

And with a shortage of local food, the concern is that prices for consumers will go up and drive some consumers away. Says Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery on South Congress, “When calories are so cheap, people aren’t willing or able to spend more for local food.”

Hopefully Austin has enough of a base dedicated to locally grown food that these farmers will still be able to make something off what they are able to grow in these conditions.