Because the city of College Station has declared a drought, city ordinance bans outdoor watering between ten a.m. and six p.m.
Water resource coordinator Jennifer Nations says this is the first time since the city council updated its ordinance in 2019 that calls for restrictions at any time of the year that there is a drought.
College Station was in a water emergency during winter storm Uri in February of last year.
While College Station’s ordinance includes fines starting at $25, Nations says no one has been assessed a financial penalty.
Nations says she likes “to follow the practice of educate, not citate.”
Enforcement is complaint driven, and is “easily fixed by a) turning off the hose-end sprinkler or b) fixing the timer on the irrigation controller.”
Nations says because “evaporative losses can be 50% or higher when watering during the middle of the day”, she really doesn’t “think people water during the day *on purpose*. Most of the time it’s because the controller is off. Quick fix.”
Click below for comments from Jennifer Nations, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.