Water conservation restrictions eased

Now that lake levels are encouragingly high, western Travis County water providers are cautiously loosening lawn-watering restrictions.

Customers within the West Travis County Public Utility Agency and the Lakeway Municipal Utility District can now water their lawns twice a week, and customers within the Hurst Creek MUD can water their lawns every other day. Still, officials are encouraging people to conserve.

“Let’s not fall back to old habits,” said Earl Foster, general manager of the Lakeway MUD.

From May 1 to Sept. 30, property owners can follow this schedule from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Within the Lakeway MUD and the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, which serve Lakeway, Bee Cave, parts of Hays County, and other parts of Western Travis County:

Odd-numbered street addresses can water-Wednesday and Saturday

Even-numbered street addresses can water Thursday and Sunday

Commercial customers can water on Tuesdays and Fridays

Within the Hurst Creek MUD (which serves the Hills):

Even-numbered street addresses can water Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Odd-numbered street addresses can water Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

“Usually after September, with the cooler weather, you don’t need to water more than twice a week, and you have rain,” Foster said. “A lot of people will turn their irrigation systems off.”

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recommended that districts could loosen conservation restrictions if they chose, Foster said.

As of Friday, the combined storage of lakes Travis and Buchanan was 78 percent full. While that’s a big difference from the 36 percent officials recorded four months ago, water consumers still should not let their guard down, Foster said. During summer, the lakes can lose over 600 million gallons of water a day, officials said.

“We’re not hitting the 100-degree weather yet, so you shouldn’t need to water more than once a week,” Foster said. “People don’t think we conserve a lot (by not watering lawns as often), but in the big picture over several years, it becomes a lot.”