“If you are irrigating five times a week just irrigate 3 days a week.”
And Georgetown Township superintendent Justin Stadt wants residents to also avoid irrigating the lawn in the morning when demand is highest.
“Residents need to step up control their summer usage.”
Because of lawn irrigation, Stadt says water use triples in Georgetown Township in the summer. The township buys its water from Wyoming and trustee John Schwalm says the price is based on peak use.
“If we can all consume less water for particularly lawns, that could help us with our overall bill with Wyoming.”
Officials say Lawn watering also adds to the wear and tear on pipes, pumping stations and other infrastructure all residents pay to maintain, even though Trustee Gary Veldink says a majority are not responsible for the summer surge,
“That pump is being wore out quicker by the heavy users but we are all going to share the cost on that.”
Trustee Kelly Kuiper wonders if requesting residents to voluntarily reduce lawn watering will have much impact.
“It doesn’t feel like the people who are the worst culprits are going to care that we are kindly suggesting they stop watering so much.”
If residents don’t voluntarily reduce use, trustee Veldink says they may adopt a tiered rate structure.
“If they don’t change their usage habits we are going to charge them more”
