With the growing season tapering off and area lakes inching lower, the North Texas Municipal Water District will consider a return to once-every-two-week sprinkler use beginning Nov. 1.
The district’s board of directors will consider the change Thursday.
“Seasonal watering is a part of the Stage 3 [drought] strategy,” district spokeswoman Denise Hickey said Monday. “We call it ‘seasonal watering’ because that seems to resonate with consumers, because we’re moving into the fall and winter when cooler temperatures and normally enough rain satisfy your lawn’s needs. It’s going dormant.”
The 13 member cities of the North Texas Municipal Water District are Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Mesquite, Princeton, Plano, Richardson, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie.
The once-every-two-week watering schedule was standard for the district’s 1.6 million customers this summer, a response to four consecutive years of drought that yielded about as much water as the region typically gets in three. Two of the district’s lakes, including its major reservoir, Lavon Lake, were at less than 50 percent of capacity for most of the summer.
They’re in even worse shape now. Lavon is at 47.5 percent of conservation capacity, lower than it was in late July. Jim Chapman Lake, tucked between Delta and Hopkins counties in northeast Texas, is at 36.6 percent of capacity. Three months ago, it was about 52 percent full.
“We really want to educate our customers,” Hickey said. “We’re telling them, ‘You want to turn your system off and really be mindful of your lawn’s needs. Do you need to use treated water to supplement normal rainfall?’”
Dottie Woodson, an extension program specialist in water resources at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, said residents can begin cutting back on lawn watering as early as Sept. 1 each year, depending on temperatures.
“Now, people who garden and grow winter vegetable crops are going to have to water,” she said, “but as far as the landscape goes, there are very few plants that won’t survive” with less frequent watering.
Some residents want a green lawn year-round, though, and overseed their lawns with rye grass in the fall and winter, Woodson said.
“We discourage that, especially in this drought, but some people love green grass,” she said. “But to get really good germination, you have to water more frequently.”
And that’s a problem in dry times. So conservation is key, the district said.
Some of the water district’s member cities and customers cut water use by 20 percent or more over the summer, Hickey said. That, combined with a few timely rainstorms helped maintain lake levels at acceptable levels.
But a very dry September hurt soil moisture. When the ground is dry, little rainfall drains into the creeks that feed the lakes.
District officials recommend that customers sign up for weekly updates on water needs at watermyyard.org, put together by A&M’s AgriLife Extension. In a weekly email, it tells exactly how much watering is needed in different area’s based on actual rainfall.
“It’s often that it’s not needed,” Hickey said. “We have tools out there and people can use them to help.”
For gardeners who might need more water, use of hoses for handheld watering is permitted, she said.
Follow Michael E. Young on Twitter @mikeyoungDMN
