The City of DeSoto, just south of Dallas, has issued Stage 2 water restrictions in response to the ongoing drought and heatwave.
City officials announced the new restrictions were necessary because of drought conditions, high temperatures, and multiple recent fire events. Due to these situations, water usage in the city has gone up.
“To keep our residents and businesses safe and to ensure that all have essential water services, the City of DeSoto has enacted the next stage of our Drought Contingency Plan,” the City’s Deputy Manager, Isom Cameron, said. “The immediate goal is to reduce the current higher demand so that we can return our water supply back to safe and sufficient volumes to get us through the remainder of the drought.”
The new restrictions require mandatory reductions in business and residential irrigation systems. Water users with automatic irrigation systems or hose-end sprinklers may water their lawns only on permitted days between 5 and 9 a.m. and between 7 and 11 p.m. They can only do these every five days.
Residential hand-washing of cars or other vehicles is only allowed on designated watering days. The only option without restrictions is taking one’s vehicle to a commercial car wash.
Residents who water their lawns with a watering container, handheld hose, or a drip system can do so without penalty. Permitted days for each resident were based on the last digits of their street address.
Residents with 0 or 5 as the last digit of their address will be allowed to water on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th of this month. People with 1 or 6 as the last digit of their address can water on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th.
The allowed watering dates for residents whose addresses end with 2 or 7 are the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 27th. Residents whose addresses’ last digits are 3 or 8 can water on the 3rd, 8th, 13th, 18th, 23rd, and 28th, while residents whose addresses end with 4 or 9 will have their watering days on the 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, and 29th.
According to officials, properties with multiple addresses like office buildings or apartments will be identified by the lowest address number. The city will assign a number to them if there aren’t any.
The Stage 2 water restrictions were activated immediately. Violators could face fines as officials said that the city has “the ability to monitor water usage.”
Officials said that the restrictions only apply to all business and residential properties whose water supply comes from DeSoto Public Utilities. Properties with private water sources are not affected. However, the city cautions against non-essential usage.
The city further directs residents and businesses to discontinue non-essential water usage outside irrigation. With this directive, restaurants are banned from serving water to customers except when they request it.
Other non-essential water uses prohibited under the Stage 2 restrictions include:
using water for dust control,
washing down hard-surfaced areas such as parking lots, walkways, driveways, sidewalks, and tennis courts,
hosing down buildings and structures without a fire protection benefit, and
operating an ornamental fountain or pond that is not designed to recirculate water.
The use of water to fill, refill, or add to any indoor or outdoor swimming pools, wading pools, or jacuzzis/hot tubs is also restricted to designated watering days.
With this announcement, De Soto joins several other local communities struggling to maintain the water supply as drought and other issues strain resources. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the North Texas Municipal Water District issued a multi-county alert last month, and the nearby city of Gunter warned citizens that their water might dry up completely after several pumps broke down due to overuse.
