A former boss proudly ignored the lawn watering restrictions that are in effect every year from May 1 to Sept. 30.
Those rules came into effect in April 2003 (bylaw 3061) after several dry summers when we came dangerously close to running out of stored water. (The storage reservoir was eventually expanded, but that’s something to explore another day.)
The former boss, apart from being annoyed at being told what to do, insisted that it’s too hard to remember the watering rules.
I’m inclined to agree. There would likely be better compliance if houses with even-numbered addresses were allowed to water their lawns on the calendar’s even days, and odd-numbered addresses on the odd days.
That’s definitely easier to remember than the bylaw rules, which are:
Even numbered residential addresses can water their lawns on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 4 to 10 a.m. and 7 to 10 p.m.
Odd numbered addresses can water on Thursdays and Sundays, during the same hours.
If you break the rules, the minimum fine is $75.
More details, including how you can water whenever you want if you use a drip system, are on the Capital Regional District website.
Wandering around town last summer, I saw plenty of non-compliance. But judging from the many, many brown lawns — “golden” is the term the water restriction promoters like to use — there were also lots of households that had decided to drastically scale back their watering.
I’ll probably go golden this year for the lawn, and mostly pay attention to watering the trees and shrubs. I’ll stick a note on the fridge reminding me of our watering days. We’re even-numbered, so that’s Wednesdays and Saturdays. (Chanting that a few times right now in an effort to remember.)
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