Two-minute impact
Know Your H2O Cedar Park, the city’s newest water conservation public awareness campaign, is intended to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation while providing tools and tips to help residents do so successfully, said Fran Irwin, the city’s community affairs director. Irwin said the year-round campaign will be most heavily promoted by the city during its hottest and driest months.
While Cedar Park has implemented several similar campaigns in previous years, Irwin said the city felt it was time for a refreshed look and feel for the initiative with a new website at www.waterthriftycedarpark.org. The website features a new camel "spokesanimal" named CP who will make an appearance at a future city event, she said.
“We’ve created something as a team working together to have a campaign that’s going to appeal to and engage our residents of all ages and help them become more aware of water conservation and motivate people to actually to adopt practices to conserve," Irwin said.
The new website features:
- The city’s current watering schedule
- A digital metering portal where ratepayers can track their water usage in real time
- Information about the importance of water conservation
- Water saving tips
- Rebates and resources, such as the city’s rain barrel credits program
Under Stage 2 drought response, residents can water their yards twice a week, with odd numbered addresses watering on Wednesdays and Saturdays while even numbered addresses can water on Thursdays and Sundays. The city issues drought response stages based on the combined water storage of Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis, which is consistent with the Lower Colorado River Authority’s drought consistency plan, City Manager Brenda Eivens said.
Eivens said many residents have asked if the city will heighten its water restrictions due to extreme hot temperatures but that the city would remain in Stage 2 unless the combined lakes' storage decreased below 750,000 acre-feet, triggering Stage 3.
“We have not reached those trigger points yet,” Eivens said. “It is possible that later this summer we will. We will continue to monitor that and should that look imminent, we’ll be speaking about that further in council meetings and then how we would implement that program as well.”
In case you missed it
Cedar Park residents can receive rebates for conserving water through the city’s rain barrel credits program and the Lower Colorado River Authority WaterSmart Rebates program.
The rain barrel credits program, which launched June 1, allows single-family residential water customers to earn up to $100 in credit toward their utility account through using rain barrels to collect and store rooftop runoff.
The city has received eight applications and distributed around $450 in credits thus far, said Nanette McCartan, the city’s utility programs manager.
Lower Colorado River Authority customers can apply for rebates to help offset the cost of irrigation systems, landscaping and pool maintenance and soil testing.
