Several Central Texas cities are under voluntary and mandatory water conservation due to the lack of rainfall and spike in water usage.
Temple is under mandatory water conservation, which means watering of lawns and golf courses is limited to two times per week during designated watering days. In addition, the use of water for non-essential water uses is prohibited.
"We used to water our grass quite often. We haven't been able to do that because of the water restrictions. We are in need of some rain," Temple resident Saide Priscila Estrada said.
Filling or refilling of pools is also restricted to designated watering days. Lions Junction Water Park has closed three days this week because of the temporary change.
"With backwashing and general use of the pool, that decreases the water level, which has us needing to add more water to the pool and because of that reason, we had to go down to four days of being open," City of Temple Director of Communications Shannon Gowan said.
Similar conditions prompted the restrictions years ago in the city.
"This is a very rare situation that we would go into stage two of water conservation. The last time we asked our residents to go into stage two of water conservation measures for drought reasons, was the summer of 2011," Gowan said.
The temporary measure aims to reduce 10 percent of the total daily water usage.
"While our numbers have been decreasing, we can tell our residents are being more water conservation minded. We don't anticipate the restrictions would be lifted until the weather pattern changes," Gowan said.
Cities under voluntary restrictions include Killeen, Nolanville and Belton.
Copyright 2018 KXXV. All rights reserved.
