Cedar Park is initiating water conservation efforts that will impact outdoor watering schedules.

On March 1, the city initiated Stage 3 water conservation measures, which calls for a 20% reduction in overall water consumption, according to a news release. The city will begin enforcing the measures March 31.

What it means

Stage 3 water conservation measures call for residents to adhere to a strict schedule to reduce water consumption, particularly for outdoor watering. Residents will be restricted to watering their yards on one designated day per week, and can only water before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Under the new schedule:

• Homes with addresses ending in 1 or 3 water on Wednesday.
• Homes with addresses ending in 4, 6 and 8 water on Thursday.
• Homes with addresses ending in 7, 8 and 9 water on Saturday.
• Homes with addresses ending in 0 and 2 water on Sunday.
• All commercial properties water on Tuesday.

A temporary increase to the utility rate will be implemented March 31 to encourage adherence to water conservation efforts. Since utility bills are based on usage, residents will only see a change in their monthly bill if they do not adhere to the conservation measures, according to the city’s website.

Digging deeper

Cedar Park relies on Lake Travis as its sole water source, which is managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority. LCRA guidelines require Stage 3 measures to be put in place if the combined storage between Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan falls below 1.1 million acre-feet. LCRA also looks at historic water flow patterns in the region and may enact Stage 3 measures if the previous three months of inflow is less than 25% of that in the same period from previous years.

The city will revert back to a Stage 2 watering schedule and will suspend the temporary rate adjustment once levels in the lakes increase to over 1.1 million acre-feet, according to the website.