By Greg Avery
Camera Staff Writer

Boulder residents will be watering their lawns and gardens less and swimming in fewer places due to outdoor water restrictions enacted Tuesday.

The restrictions apply to all residential and commercial users of city water, limiting each property to watering outside twice a week on assigned days for a total of 30 minutes.

BOULDER RESTRICTIONS Restrictions: Boulder properties will be allowed to water outside twice a week for 15 minutes on each of those days, and only between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. Goal: Cut water use by 25 percent. Watering zones: Thursday and Sunday — Addresses with the last two digits between 00 and 30 Wednesday and Saturday — Addresses with the last two digits between 31 to 60 Tuesday and Friday — Addresses with the last two digits between 61 to 99 may water on Tuesday and Friday — Homeowner association sprinkler systems and other common-property irrigation systems without specific addresses Violators: Penalties to be determined. • Drought and fire coverage

The city will not actively enforce the restrictions until June 5, allowing residents to get adjusted to their watering schedules for two weeks before hard enforcement.

Lawn and garden watering accounts for 54 percent of the city's annual water use.

With statewide snowpack — the source of nearly all water in the state — having dropped well below 50 percent of the 30-year average, Boulder is trying to cut water use by 25 percent until next April to avoid running out of water before next spring.

Outdoor watering won't be allowed on Mondays. Otherwise, city water users — both inside and just outside city limits — will only be allowed to water outside 15 minutes on each of the assigned days.

"Any watering ... all watering," Ned Williams, the city's head of utilities, told the City Council on Tuesday.

Starting June 5 the city will hand out tickets to people caught watering in violation of the restrictions, the fines ranging from $50 for a first offense to $300 for a third offense.

Homeowner association sprinkler systems and other common-property irrigation set ups without specific addresses are assigned to water on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Watering will only be allowed between midnight and 9 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to midnight.

The city is asking that all non-essential outdoor water use — such as hosing off sidewalks — be curtailed.

Car washes are not included in the city's ban, though if drought conditions continue to worsen, more restrictions and billing changes could be put in place.

The city swimming pool in Scott Carpenter Park, 1505 30th Street — the city's most popular outdoor pool — will remain closed this year due to concerns about water shortages. The pool normally opens over Memorial Day weekend.

The large, unshaded pool leaks 8,000 gallons a day and has a 5,000-gallon daily evaporation rate, city Parks Superintendent Doug Hawthorne said.

For at least the rest of the week, the city is suspending registration for aquatics classes while it reschedules recreation offerings that would normally be held at the Scott Carpenter pool.

Summer outdoor swimming will be available at the Boulder Reservoir and at the city's Spruce Pool, 2102 Spruce St., which opened two weekends ago.

"We're very conscious of the drought conditions we have," Hawthorne said.

Right now the parks department plans to water all of its parks once a week, though some — if it has landscaping less than 3 years old — would be watered more often, he said.

New parks like Valmont City Park and Elmer's Two Mile Park, near the intersection of Iris Avenue and 28th Street, will not be sodded with bluegrass. Instead, a less water-intensive rye seed mix will be planted and irrigated so it takes root in order to prevent erosion in the park.

The planting of 50 new trees at Foothills Community Park has been canceled this year.

Contact Greg Avery at (303) 473-1307 or averyg@thedailycamera.com.

May 22, 2002

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