City Asks for Water Conservation As Rain Evades South Texas

The City of Victoria is promoting water conservation due to low rainfall upstream, but will the potential for rainfall later this week fall down or fall through?

When you've lived in South Texas for as long as I have, you know it's a constant struggle between drought and flooding.

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Last week Victoria residents were preparing for torrential downpours for Wednesday at 60 percent through the weekend but now it looks like the best chances we've got for rainfall is Friday at 16 percent.

But it's with long term evaluation that the The City of Victoria is asking residents to conserve water as the Guadalupe River falls below its normal level for this time of year due to low rainfall upstream.

Under its 1998 surface water permit, the City must limit its pumping to no more than 10% of the river flow when the river level is below normal. To help reduce the need for pumping, the City this week enacted Stage One of its drought contingency plan.

Under Stage One, residents are asked to practice voluntary water conservation measures. Residents can help the City conserve water by following these tips:

• Do not over-water your lawn. An inch of water, applied once a week, will keep most Texas grasses healthy.
• Switch to modern appliances that use less water.
• Sign up for the City’s free water monitoring service, WaterWise, to keep track of your water usage and catch hidden leaks and similar issues before they show up on your water bill.

To sign up for WaterWise, visit www.victoriawaterwise.com.

To learn more about the drought contingency plan, visit www.victoriatx.gov/droughtplan or contact Public Works at 361-485-3380.