Drought restrictions extended as Cheney level drops; Wichita to begin fining people

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The City of Wichita is extending its drought restrictions beyond September because the water level at Cheney Lake continues to drop . The city also plans to start issuing fines to people who violate the restrictions.

“We continue to see a decline in levels at Cheney Reservoir,” Megan Lovely, Wichita communications manager, said. “We now sit at less than 59% full overall and less than 67% of the 12-month average of the conservation pool.”

Wichita is currently in Stage 2 of its drought response plan. It will move to Stage 3 if the conservation pool’s 12-month average falls below 50%.

For most Wichita water customers, Stage 3 would mean no watering of lawns and non-vegetable gardens and no private pool use, among other restrictions.

Under Stage 2, customers can water on their one assigned day of the week. But the city says some people have been caught watering on other days, too.

So far, the city has only issued warning letters, 302 of them, to people suspected of violating the restrictions, but Lovely said that will change now.

“Going forward, staff plans to increase enforcement, including issuance of fines if warranted,” she said.

When the city declared Stage 2 on Aug. 1 and announced the water restrictions, it said it would reevaluate at the end of the two months.

“After seeing an initial drastic decline of the first several weeks of the Stage 2 drought restrictions, our community water use is starting to inch just a little bit back up,” Lovely said on Thursday.

Before the restrictions began, the weekly highest water use was around 74 million gallons of water a day. In the first week of restrictions, the highest water use was just over 55 million, but it was back to 64 million last week.

So, the city is extending the restrictions.

“Stage 2 restrictions are extended until we see those levels at Cheney start to go back up,” Lovely said.

When asked how long that could take, she said that will depend on the weather.

“Maybe we’ll get a ton of water, and we’ll be out this time next month.”

As lawn watering tapers off in the fall, the city wants people to find ways to conserve water indoors. Go to SaveWichitaWater.com to get conservation tips.

In the meantime, all outdoor non-crucial watering will continue with this schedule:

People northwest of Central and Broadway can water on Mondays, northeast on Tuesdays, southwest on Wednesdays, and southeast on Thursdays. Watering is limited to before 10 a.m. and after 8 p.m.

The watering restrictions apply to commercial users and Wichita’s wholesale customers.

People who use well water are exempt from the restrictions but are encouraged to conserve as much as possible.

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