WESTFIELD – City resident may be confused by restrictions on water use recently enacted by the city’s Water Commission.
As previously reported in The Westfield News, the Water Commission members anticipated a water supply shortage would be created when the Granville reservoir was temporarily removed from service in April and took action to ensure that an adequate supply of water remains available for all consumers in the city during the summer while the reservoir is not available for use.
Most obvious of the steps taken were mandatory water use restrictions which took effect May 1 and “ are necessary to maintain water pressure to ensure public safety and to ensure an adequate system capacity for essential uses by all customers” according to the Water Department portion of the city’s web site.
The restrictions affect non-essential water use by residents who are allowed to use water only three days each week during the restriction period, which is scheduled to extend through September.
No non-essential water use will be allowed on Mondays but non-essential water use will be allowed, before 9 a.m. after 5 p.m., during the rest of the week according to a schedule determined by the street number of the property in question.
Use on property with even numbered street addresses will be allowed on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and at odd numbered addresses on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.
Examples of common non-essential water uses offered on the web site are lawn irrigation with sprinklers or automatic irrigation systems, washing of vehicles (except at commercial car wash operations) and washing of the exterior surfaces of structures, as well as washing of parking lots, sidewalks and driveways except as necessary to apply surface treatments.
Water uses which are not subject to the restrictions include use for health and safety reasons, for the production of food and fiber, for livestock and for “core functions” of a business.
The restrictions are largely designed to reduce the huge amount of water used for irrigating lawns, by automatic systems and by unattended sprinklers, but do not restrict watering with a handheld hose, by a soaker hose or by a drip irrigation system.
