Chapel Hill, Carrboro Now Face Mandatory Water Restrictions

CHAPEL HILL, NC — Mandatory water restrictions are now in effect for Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

The Orange Water and Sewer Authority board of directors voted unanimously Thursday night to call for the towns to adopt mandatory restrictions.

Friday morning, Carrboro Mayor Michael Nelson, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy and Orange County Commission Chair Barry Jacobs signed proclamations establishing mandatory water use restrictions effective immediately.

The towns have been under voluntary conservation measures since June 27.

Mandatory guidelines include:

Watering of lawns, gardens and other landscaping with sprinkler(s) or irrigation systems is limited to three days per week.

Customers with odd-numbered street addresses may irrigate on Mondays, Wednesday or/and Fridays.

Customers with even-numbered street addresses may irrigate on Tuesdays, Thursdays or/and Saturdays.

Note:

If you live in an apartment, condominium or office complex with individual apartment numbers, use your street address. For example, an address of 1000 Smith Street, Apt. 1 is considered an even-numbered address because the street address is 1000.

There is no restriction on watering with a hand-held hose or watering can.

A business that sells plants is allowed to water its stock without the above limit of three days per week.

Irrigation and sprinkling should be limited to one inch or less per week. (You can use a tuna can, etc. to measure outdoor water use.)

Watering with sprinkler(s) or irrigation systems is allowed only before dawn (sunrise) and after dusk (sunset).

Using OWASA water to wash vehicles, buildings, sidewalks, driveways, patios and similar impervious surfaces is prohibited.

Restaurants shall not serve OWASA water except upon request.

Although many of the University of North Carolina's buildings do not have street addresses, the University has also developed an equivalent irrigation schedule to limit the days of irrigation with OWASA water.

Board members say the area has 130 remaining days of water supply.

In June 2002, water use by OWASA customers averaged 13 million gallons per day. In contrast, winter water use is usually 8 to 9 million gallons per day. A record one-day demand of 16 million gallons per day occurred on June 13.