As a Dallas Water Utilities customer, Coppell is required to maintain a conservation plan that aligns with the city of Dallas, which imposed similar restrictions in 2019. Residential and commercial development throughout the city has increased water use and pushed the city toward its contractual maximum of 18.5 million gallons a day during its peak season, Director of Public Works Mike Garza said.
Without implementing a new ordinance, the city anticipated to use 19 million gallons per day by 2025, equating to a $350,000 annual increase in cost, Garza said. When the city is completely built out, the daily use amount could increase to 25 million gallons per day by 2040. Additionally, allowing the daily use to increase unabated stresses the city water system, making it more prone to failure, officials said.
The details
The council approved a new ordinance that adjusted non-watering times, reduced the weekly water limits in each drought stage and increased the fine for violations.
With the changes, residents, businesses and municipalities are prohibited from watering between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. year round regardless of the current drought stage, according to city documents. The new ordinance also reduced the number of drought stages from five to four.
Public works and the city manager’s office largely determines when to initiate each stage as they monitor supply, demand, and different triggers like water line breaks and consecutive overwatering that prevents replenishment of reserves, Garza said. Another primary trigger would be if Dallas Water Utilities issued a water shortage notice to its customers.
Zooming in
Stage 1 restrictions are in place year round and limit watering to Wednesdays and Sundays for odd-numbered residential addresses, and to Tuesdays and Saturdays for even-numbered addresses. This is mandatory from May 1-Sept. 30 and is encouraged for the remaining months of the year, according to documents. Business, commercial and government entities may water Mondays and Fridays.
Under stage 2, the mandatory two days per week watering restrictions are in place with the same split for odd- and even-numbered addresses. Stage 3 reduces the limit to one day a week and stage 4 prohibits all watering.
Stage 1 also discourages residents from planting new landscapes, including lawns, sod and hydro-seeding—a planting process that uses a slurry of seed and mulch. However, this could impact residents living in neighborhoods with home owners associations who may be threatened with fines for not fixing dead and decayed yards. In these cases, residents can apply for a variance request that allows them to plant a new yard, Garza said.
"Over the course of the year, we will educate and highly encourage folks to do landscaping outside the summertime, but we know there are cases were that's not doable," he said.
Also of note
The ordinance also increased the fine for violating water restrictions to $2,000, according to city documents. This decision is a response to incidents where residents accepted the previous $500 fine and continued watering freely, Garza said.
"In situations were we become in a drought-serious timeframe and we are needing to conserve water, those are the time we would consider fining folks abusing watering restrictions," he said.
