Junction City asks residents to reduce water usage by 30% - The Register-Guard

Junction City asks residents to reduce water usage by 30%

Junction City on Stage 2 water emergency, issues mandatory water usage guidelines
Charles Gearing

Junction City officials have upgraded a water emergency to Stage 2, including a mandatory reduction of water usage by 30%.

Watering or irrigating lawns, landscaping and gardens is restricted to weekdays between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., with odd number addresses on odd days and even addresses on even days.

The length of the restrictions, which were implemented Tuesday, depends on compliance, said Public Works Director Gary Kaping.

"If people comply and do what we want them to do, it could be two or three weeks," Kaping said Wednesday. "If they don't comply, it could be all summer. It just depends on them complying with what we're requesting. If they continue like they're using today, it's very possible that we could go to a Level 3, which would mean no outside water use at all."

Noncompliance will result in a written warning on the first violation, with a $300 fine for each subsequent violation.

While the tanks currently hold enough water to fit everyday needs, there is not enough in case of a fire.

"With our tanks that low it makes us pretty nervous if we were to have a big fire," Kaping said.

The mandatory reduction comes two weeks after Junction City announced a Level 1 alert with voluntary water usage restrictions after a power outage at a well and high water usage.

"Level 1 was effective for three or four days, and then people went back to doing what they were doing," Kaping said. "We were starting to catch up and then they went back to using at 1.4 million gallons a day, when a town our size should be using about 750,000 to 850,000 gallons a day."

"Our tanks are lower now than when we went to a Level 1," Kaping said, due to the heavy water usage.

Kaping said the water tanks are currently measuring at 24.13 feet, and under normal circumstances should be at 34 feet.

"Every foot of water we lose in our tanks is about 90,000 gallons, and we're 10 feet lower than we want to be, so it's about 900,000 gallons of water that we do not have in reserve," Kaping said.

These are the other Junction City restrictions to cut down on household water usage.

- Reduce the frequency that you water the lawn.
- Liming any watering of lawns, landscaping and gardens to no more than 15 minutes per zone or area.
- No city water used to wash sidewalks, walkways, streets, driveways, parking lots or other hard surface areas.
- No use of city-supplied water allowed to clean, fill, or maintain levels in decorative fountains.
- No use of city-supplied water to wash vehicles.
- Hydrant and water main flushing for emergency use only.
- Restaurants required to post draught notices and offer drinking water only upon request.
- Major water users must reduce lawn or landscaping watering to no more than 50 consumption units per day. A "major water user" is a city water costumer who generally averages a minimum of at least 100 consumption units per day during the summer months for outdoor landscaping or lawn watering.

"Grass is meant to die and come back," Kaping said.

Charles Gearing is a breaking news reporter for the Eugene Register-Guard. He may be reached at cgearing@gannett.com.