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Show For outdoor use only Bountiful adopts water conservation ordinance that some minor discrepancies would be included for those applying for hardship situations with the city. The council put City Engineer Jack Balling in charge of monitoring the water conservation ordinance by Bountiful. Boun-tiful. Some of the things not restricted by the ordinance will include plant watering, Hardy added. The overall water picture for Bountiful is in "pretty good shape" as reported by Balling in a previous council coun-cil meeting. Culinary water use indoors by Bountiful residents will not be affected by the conservation measures. Bountiful City has nine active wells, five reserve By PAUL CHALLIS News Editor BOUNTIFUL The City Council has approved an ordinance enforcing water conservation measures for outdoor use during the spring and summer. The council last week had authorized City Manager Tom Hardy to draft an ordinance to monitor outdoor watering that would conform with restrictions placed on the city by the Weber Basin Conservancy District. Weber Basin officials blame the below normal water situation on the fifth straight year of drought conditions in northern Utah. Weber Basin will be delivering only 50 percent of the yearly allocation to Bountiful that uses the irrigation water as a secondary supply source. , The City Council approved the ordinance at a special meeting held a week ago Friday morning to help "get the word out to local citizens as quickly as possible." The conservation policy includes watering twice a week for three hours at a time. Residents living on the even side of the street can do outdoor watering on Mondays and Thursdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. or from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Residents living on the odd side of the street will be allowed to water lawns on Tuesdays and Fridays also from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. of 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Bountiful residents living above Bountiful Boulevard will be allowed to use six hours of watering on the odd and even days because it takes longer for the water pressure to build up on the hillside on the east side of Bountiful. The new ordinance states that violators of the watering water-ing restrictions will first receive a notice from city employees. The second time offenders will be penalized penaliz-ed with a $100 fee that will be attached to their monthly water bill. "The only way we can legally turn their water off is if they fail to pay their bill," Hardy said. Councilman Robert Gramoll made the motion to have the city staff draft an ordinance that could be enforced en-forced by city officials. Part of his motion also included wells and 11 reservoirs to draw from, Balling said. Bountiful used 4,682 acre feet of water or 2,903 gallons per minute in 1990. The maximum month usage was in July, when 528 acre feet of water or 3,856 gallons per minute for the 365 days of 1990 was 1.5 billion gallons of water. 4 'We have twice the water we need for an average year," Balling said. "The city does not have the sources, nor the system, to provide for the shortage in irrigation needs and we will need to support the requirements re-quirements for use of irrigation water that is set by Weber Basin and Bountiful Sub District to protect our water system." Balling added that Bountiful cannot supplement the amount of water, down 50 percent from Weber Basin, without putting a strain on the culinary water system. Bountiful Sub District use is about 16,000 acre feet of irrigation water in Bountiful City which is about 3.5 times more water than the city uses for culinary water. Water department officials say the drought has put stress on the wells. Some of the wells are going down 600 feet to pump up water to the surface. Most of the wells only go down between 250 to 300 feet to find water. Because of the lower runoff of ground water, it takes a longer period of time for the water to drain into the water tables used by Bountiful. Most of the water comes from the high Uintas mountain range. |