Austin announces new water restrictions on everything from lawns to dining out

With water levels continuing to drop in the Highland Lakes reservoirs that supply Austin, the city announced Stage 2 water restrictions to take effect Tuesday. Even if you don’t have a lawn or don’t bother watering the lawn you have, you could notice the new rules affecting daily life in Austin.

Here are some of the new policies aimed at conserving our precious water supply.

Lawn watering down to once a week

Under Stage 2 watering restrictions, automatic irrigation and hose-end watering is limited to one day a week. You are only allowed to water your lawn for three hours, and watering must end by 5 a.m. instead of 8 a.m.

Under Stage 1 rules, people trying to establish new lawns or landscapes were exempt from watering restrictions. They are no longer exempt.

You can find your watering day and more details on city policy here.

Car washing

Charity car washes are prohibited under the new restrictions. At home, you can only wash your car with a bucket or a hose with an “auto shut off valve.”

Dining out

If you go to a restaurant, you now have to ask for a glass of water if you’d like one. Restaurants will not be allowed to immediately put water on the table regardless of whether their patrons want it.

Patio misters – also called swamp coolers – at restaurants, bars and other commercial establishments will only be allowed to run from 4 p.m. until midnight.

Golf courses, fountains and more

Under city rules, “large ornamental fountains” will no longer be allowed to operate.

Golf courses that use potable water are only allowed to irrigate fairways on their watering day, while golf tees and greens can be watered every other day only with the approval of Austin Water.

Watering golf course fairways is only allowed between 7 p.m. and midnight or between midnight and 5 a.m. on the course’s designated water-use days.

Commercial pressure washing equipment must meet city water efficiency requirements.

Note: If you notice some city parks watering their land in apparent defiance of city policy, it may be because they use non potable water or water pulled directly from Lady Bird Lake. Irrigating parks with such water exempts them from conservation measures.

Rules to last until drought subsides

Austin gets its water from Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan in the Highland Lakes system of the Colorado River. Those lakes are, at the time of publication, 46 percent full and projected to drop below 900,000 acre-feet of water storage. That automatically triggers Stage 2 conservation restrictions, the goal of which is to cut back city water use by 10 percent to 20 percent.

Stage 3 restrictions go into effect when the lakes drop below 600,000 acre-feet of water. Under Stage 3 restrictions, the city must reduce water use by a minimum of 20 percent under an agreement with the Lower Colorado River Authority, the group that manages Colorado River water.

An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, or the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land with one foot of water.

You can find a copy of Austin’s drought contingency requirements here. You can also find the LCRA’s projections for reservoir levels and other information about the Highland Lakes here.

Penalties for not following Stage 2 water conservation rules may be as much as $1,000 per violation. You can call 311 to report a violation.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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