Council approves new drought plan

Other changes include enforcing annual mandatory Stage 2 water restrictions from March 1–Oct. 31, implementing once-per-week watering restrictions if the city reaches Stage 3 restrictions—considered severe drought conditions—and restricting residents to watering lawns and plants by hand once per week in Stage 4 restrictions, which would involve drought conditions more severe than the state's worst drought on record.

As of July 22, the LCRA lakes stood at 733,010 acre-feet, or at 36 percent full. While the city is currently in Stage 2 restrictions, Stage 3 water restrictions will be imposed if the lakes drop below 700,000 acre-feet, a threshold LCRA projects the lakes might dip below this summer.

To help conserve water, the city itself has set its sprinklers to water only at designated times.

"We're not doing anything different from what we've asked the general public to do," Pflugerville Water Conservation Manager Darrell Winslett said.

Winslett advises residential landscape watering be done during cooler times of the day. While evening restrictions allow watering as early as 7 p.m., the temperature at that time could still be too hot, he said.

The city also has programs in place to help promote water reuse, including offering rainwater collection barrels. Currently the city also reuses processed water from its wastewater treatment plant at the sports fields in Travis County's Northeast Metropolitan Park, and Pflugerville's Public Works Department is looking for other places where reused water could be utilized.

"We're doing a reuse master plan to see where else we can feasibly get that reused water to," Pflugerville Public Works Director James Wills said. "That will help conserve water ... if we can irrigate with that [water]."