Cedar Park City Council has chosen to keep once-a-week water restrictions in the city after late spring rains raised water levels. However, council members on July 9 said they will consider revoking other water restrictions. Assistant City Manager Sam Roberts said City Council could vote by Aug. 13 to let charities hold car wash fundraisers, or to permit residents to wash their cars on any single day of the week. Currently the city’s stage 3 water restrictions classify outdoor car washes as nonessential water use. The severe water shortage rules require any outdoor vehicle washing to be done only on designated outdoor watering days. The stage 3 restrictions also ban charity car washes and restrict outdoor decorative fountains that do not support fish or recycle the water. Mayor Matt Powell said the city could allow charity car washes if organizers attach hose nozzles to prevent wasted water. Roberts said the council could also lift restrictions on fountains. Cedar Park and other municipalities draw water from Lake Travis, and since 2010 low rain has dropped the lake to drought levels. As of July 14 the Lower Colorado River Authority, or LCRA, reported Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis were at 77 percent capacity because of record rains. Place 2 Council Member Corbin van Arsdale said he cannot assume the drought is over. “I don’t think [the increased rain] is a reason to go and start draining the lake again,” he said. Powell said more water from Lake Travis is lost each year to evaporation than to Cedar Park water usage. If the city eases restrictions, the lake would not be at risk, Powell said. Roberts said the cities of Cedar Park, Austin and Leander opted to keep stage 3 restrictions until the results of a pending LCRA water management plan, which could allow LCRA to maintain lake storage and adapt to droughts. All three cities want to show support for the plan, which could go before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in September, Roberts said. “The lake levels are still at risk until the revised water-management plan is approved,” Roberts said. “In terms of water supply, the drought is not over.”