Georgetown City Council gave final approval April 23 for new water-use requirements and an update to the city’s drought contingency plan. Council members voted unanimously to approve ordinances on both matters. New water-use requirements restrict residents who receive water service through Georgetown Utility Systems from using water for irrigation systems or hose-end sprinklers on more than two days per week. An ordinance approved April 23 made permanent a two-day weekly water schedule for customers based on street addresses. Customers with street addresses ending in 1, 5 or 9 can only use water for irrigation systems or hose-end sprinklers on Tuesdays and Fridays. Customers with addresses ending in 2, 4, 6 and 8 can water on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Those with addresses ending in 0, 3 or 7 can water on Thursdays and Sundays. No water use for irrigation is allowed on Mondays. Irrigation systems and hose-end sprinklers should not run on city water between noon on 7 p.m. on any day of the week. The water schedule was designed to help balance demand on Georgetown’s water system, according to the city. Violators can face fines. Updates to the city’s drought contingency plan included new “triggers” used during periods of drought conditions to restrict water use based on combined storage at Lake Georgetown and Lake Stillhouse Hollow as well as the capacity level of the city’s water treatment system. The drought contingency ordinance is available here. The city starting offering several new rebate programs this month for customers using irrigation systems, including customers who change from using spray systems to drip systems, covert their spray nozzles to multistream nozzles, or install Wi-Fi assisted control systems to boost irrigation efficiency.