Odd-even watering starts Thursday

Carson City does not restrict summer lawn watering to every other day to score points with environmentalists for water conservation.

The city - on purpose - does not have enough wells, storage tanks or big enough water lines to supply enough water to let everybody water their lawns every day.

"Our forefathers (in the early 1970s) designed a water system to be able to meet the peak demand of only half of the residents to keep capital costs low," said Tom Hoffert, the city's utilities operation manager.

Watering restrictions start Thursday and continue to Oct. 1. Addresses ending in an odd number may only water lawns on odd numbered days. Even-numbered addresses water on even days.

Lawns may be not be watered between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., and July 31 and Aug. 31 are watering holidays: Nobody may water on those day.

Residents may apply for exemptions. These are primarily for people with automatic sprinklers so they don't have to reset their systems to get back to odd or even on a 31-day month. They still water only every other day, Hoffert said.

Exemptions from last year must be renewed to be effective again this year. Hoffert said about 30 to 40 percent of last year's exemptions have called to renew. The phone number to apply for an exemption is 887-2355, option 4.

Watering restrictions allow Carson City to have among the lowest water rates in the West, Hoffert said.

"We did not put this into effect for true conservation," Hoffert said. "This was put into effect to keep capital expenses low.'

Hoffert figures it would easily cost $10 million to upgrade the water system enough to remove watering restrictions. Peak summer demand with only half the population watering lawns is 22 million gallons a day.

That number would exceed 40 million gallons without restrictions. Most summer water usage is for lawn water, Hoffert said, basing that on winter usage at only 4.5 million gallons a day.

"If everybody was allowed to water every day, we'd have to have twice the number of wells, twice the number of tanks and the lines would have to be double the current size," Hoffert said.

Carson City has 24 wells. Each new well costs between $300,000 and $500,000. The city has 11 water storage tanks and new tanks cost about $500,000 each.

"We would have to replace our major water arteries to an adequate size to supply 40 million gallons a day," Hoffert said. "We would have to replace at least 50 miles of water mains. We have about 200 miles."

Hoffert will have five or six college students roaming the streets 24 hours a day to track down violators of the odd-even restrictions. Vocal and written warnings will be given before chronic violators are issued a $25 misdemeanor citation.

"We do enforcement only as a last resort," Hoffert said. "Only with about 2 to 5 percent of the population do we have to take enforcement actions. Most of the public is very supportive and understanding."