Water restrictions may come soon in Austin if dry weather continues

AUSTIN (KXAN) – As the City of Georgetown enters stage one drought restrictions prohibiting residential water users from watering during the heat of the day, we wanted to know if water restrictions may soon return to Austin as well.

KXAN's Tom Miller spoke with Austin Water, who said that with lake levels creeping lower during the recent drier than normal stretch of weather, Austin may soon return to stage one water restrictions for the first time since September 2018.

Austin Water reminds us that even when the city is not under water restrictions, we are always in the 'Water Conservation Stage', which limits watering laws to just one day a week for automatic sprinklers, and two days a week for hose sprinklers.

What would put Austin back under water restrictions?

Stages within the City of Austin’s Drought Contingency Plan are triggered by the combined water storage levels of Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis.

Austin enters into the 'Stage One Drought Response' when the combined storage of Lake Buchanan and Travis reaches or drops below 1.4 million acre-feet (one acre-foot is 325,851 gallons).

Currently, the combined storage is 1.53 million acre-feet of water. The Lower Colorado River Authority’s March 1 storage projection shows that under dry weather conditions, we may reach the 1.4 million acre-feet trigger in May. Even with normal rainfall, we may still reach the trigger in June. A wetter weather pattern could keep Austin in its current minimal conservation stage.

What would stage one water restrictions look like in Austin?

Since Austin's permanent 'Water Conservation Stage' already limits watering laws to just one day a week for automatic sprinklers and two days a week for hose sprinklers, the only change that stage one would bring would be narrower hours when watering is allowed.

Currently, watering is allowed between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m. Austin Water's stage one watering hours would restrict that slightly to between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.