City of St. George Enters Stage One of the Culinary Drought Management Plan

The City of St. George Council passed a resolution to enact Stage One of the Culinary Drought Management plan with an additional mandatory watering restriction prohibiting day time watering.

Stage one of the plan asks residents and businesses to voluntarily implement conservation strategies such as washing only full loads of laundry, checking for and repairing leaks, repairing misaligned or broken sprinkler heads. These actions are easy to do and reflect an ethic of wise water use.

Along with entering Stage One of the plan, the Council enacted day time mandatory water restrictions.

1. Watering is prohibited between the hours of 8:00 am and 8:00 pm.

“Watering during the evening/night time allows more water to permeate into the soil and less water is lost to evaporation” commented Barry Barnum, Water Services Director.

The Culinary Drought Management Plan applies to culinary water use. Many public facilities are watered with non-culinary, irrigation water. Given the limited amount of storage on the irrigation system and the size and number of facilities that use this water, it is necessary to conduct some daytime watering. Some of the facilities that use irrigation water are listed below:

• Many Washington County School District schools
• City parks
• City golf courses; Southgate, St. George, Dixie Red Hills & Sunbrook
• Dixie State College
• The City Water Walk on Main Street

Public irrigation water users recognize its value and make every effort to complete irrigation as efficiently as possible.

The City is asking residents and businesses to set irrigation clocks to operate during the hours 8:00 pm and 8:00 am and to maintain the system to avoid over watering.

The City and Washington County Water Conservancy District are offering Free Residential Landscape Water Audits. The audit will evaluate a homeowners sprinkler system and develop a customized irrigation schedule to maintain plant health and reduce water use. To schedule an appointment, contact Julie at 673-3617.
The Conservation Drought Management Plan can be found on the conservation page of the City’s website at www.sgcity.org.