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• • July 2017 Newsletter
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Did you know that Pleasant Grove was once called Battle Creek?

3 Year Coordinated Road Plan – FY 2016 to 2018
3 Year Coordinated Road Plan – FY 2017 to 2019

Water Conservation FAQ

What is the current watering schedule?

Odd numbered houses and businesses: Mo-We-Fr
Even numbered houses and businesses: Tu-Th-Sa
Sundays: City and School District

Why do I see the City and others watering on Sundays?

In order to keep our system balanced, we is better to have some water usage on Sundays. We don’t allow residential or businesses to water, but allow some of the larger users (City and School District) to use the water.

Why does it seem that the City waters every day of the week?

Because of the size of some parks and the cemetery, the City will water a different part of the park and cemetery each day. While it may appear that the same piece of grass is being watered each day, it is actually watering the same piece of grass about once a week.

What are the watering violations that could result in a fine?

1. Watering on the wrong day
2. Wasting water
    a. Overwatering- Keeping sprinklers on too long
    b. Watering while it is raining
3. Watering on Sunday

What are the penalties for a watering violation?

First offense: Warning
Second offense: Disconnection from the secondary water system and $50 reconnect fee
Third offense: Disconnection from secondary water system and $200 reconnect fee
Reconnecting after shutoff: If property owner reconnects themselves to the secondary water system after being shut off by the City, a $500 penalty will be enacted in addition to any criminal action may be enforced.

What is the recommended watering time for my lawn?

Please use the following link to ascertain what the recommended watering time is. It varies on a weekly basis depending on the weather:

http://www.conservewater.utah.gov/guide.html

I was told that when the secondary water system went in that I’d be able to use all the water I wanted to and that the price wouldn’t go up.

We’ve heard a few residents make this comment. While I can’t speak to what was said in the past, our reality is that (1) we have a limited resource when it comes to water so we don’t have the luxury of allowing everyone to use as much as they want and (2) an analysis of the secondary water rates was done in 2010 that showed if there wasn’t a rate increase the water fund would be bankrupt in a couple of years. Therefore corresponding rate increases were put in to make sure the water fund stayed solvent.

How much water does the City have?

The City has water rights for enough water to operate the system each year. Depending on the amount of snow in the mountains determines how many of these water rights we are allowed to exercise. On a good snow year we are able to exercise 100% of our water rights if needed. In a drought year, we are allocated a portion of our water rights because their simply isn’t enough physical water to exercise all the water rights. For this reason a watering schedule is put into place to help conserve that water.

If the residents can water as much as they want on their allotted days, then are we really conserving water?

We are asking each citizen to limit their water usage on the days they are allowed to water. It defeats the purpose of conservation if our citizens have the attitude that they will overwater on the days they are allowed to water. Overwatering is a violation of our ordinance and subject to a citation. This really is a community effort to work together to conserve water.

Are we currently in a drought?

This is the third straight year that we aren’t receiving our full water allotment. Therefore we are asking residents to conserve water wherever possible. The City has enough water to last throughout this whole year if we have cooperation on conservancy. If we continue to run our sprinklers longer than we need to or water during a rainstorm, then we run the risk of not having enough water to last the whole year.

We got all this rain in May. Is the drought over?

The rain in May was heaven sent this year. It doesn’t signal the end of the drought because it wasn’t able to be stored as snow pack. The drought is really based on the amount of snow pack we get during the winter. The positive that the rain provided was that we used a small amount of our stored water during that month which helps with availability at the end of the year. But even with the rain we can’t be less diligent on water conservation.

What if my neighbor is watering too much or on the wrong days?

Please contact our Public Works Department at (801) 785-2941 and we will investigate it. You can remain anonymous throughout the process.

Why does the City allow more development when we have a water shortage?

Each new development is required to deed the amount of water their new development will use to the City.

Why isn’t secondary water metered?

At this point the secondary water system hasn’t been metered. When the system was installed, the technology for secondary water meters was lacking. The technology is much better now and putting in secondary water meters in now an option for consideration. The hold back at this point is the capital cost of installing the meters. It will cost $5.5M in order to install secondary water meters in the city. Right now, there isn’t a budget allocation for the installation of the meters.

Would we save water if we metered secondary water?

Before secondary water meters were installed, residents had to use culinary water to irrigate their lawns. This culinary water was metered. When the water was metered the usage was 3 gallons per minute per acre in the city. Now that the secondary water isn’t metered our usage has gone up to 7.5 gallons per minute per acre. That number shows that if secondary water was metered, we’d see a more concerted effort for residents to conserve water.