SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — As the summer months draw nearer, Spring Hill officials are looking at how they can better enforce the city's water conservation policy when it comes to irrigation systems.

At their latest meeting, the Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen spent time reviewing the current water conservation policy and discussing how best to improve it so the city can avoid emergency curtailments to its water usage this summer.

The conversation is not a new one in the city, according to Assistant City Administrator Dan Allen. At the May 5 meeting, he said the conversation usually comes up in the second quarter of the year as the weather warms.

"It usually seems to always come up around May because as the weather starts to turn and we start to have irrigation, we typically get a beginning of the summer season surge that, in the last several years, have caused some shortages and potential cutoffs and things like that," he said at the meeting.

In past years, Spring Hill has enacted voluntary water reduction measures as extreme drought conditions have plagued Middle Tennessee, but because the policy isn't codified as an ordinance, there have been questions about its full impact in the city.

On Monday night, Allen and BOMA members discussed the current policy and how reformatting the policy into a citywide ordinance could potentially help city officials better enforce water conservation via lawn irrigation.

"Previously, the water conservation policy has been primarily left as a policy to allow for some flexibility," Allen said.

The current policy states water customers at locations with odd-numbered addresses are permitted to perform "outdoor water activities" on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. Customers at even-numbered addresses are permitted to do so on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

For subdivision homeowners associations, commercial, industrial, or retail developments with open spaces and landscaped areas by collectives or groups, the staggering is based on the first letter of the subdivision or development. First letters A through M are on the Saturday, Monday, Wednesday schedule; N through Z are on the Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday schedule.

No customers in Spring Hill are permitted to water on Fridays, per the policy.

There are built-in exemptions for vegetable gardens and public parks with playing fields, though.

If water customers don't stick to the staggered schedule, penalties are light, per the current policy.

First-time violations would see homeowners receive "educational materials" in the mail about the need to stagger lawn irrigation properly. Second-time offenders would receive a door hanger warning them they would be subject to having their irrigation meters shut off. Third-time offenders would then see the meters shut off, per the policy, and homeowners would not have service restored until they pay a reconnection fee.

These irrigation meters are not the main water supply to homes, according to Mayor Matt Fitterer—rather, they are a separate meter specifically for outdoor irrigation. Spring Hill allows for the separate irrigation meter in addition to a home's standard water usage meter, Fitterer said, so the current policy only deals with the irrigation meters.

"Ultimately, if water leaves our system faster than we can replenish it, it creates shortages within our water tanks and distribution system, and that creates challenges around having enough fire flows and pressures for public safety, as well," he told News 2.

Those shortages seem to be a seasonal challenge, Fitterer said, as May, June and July might be when more people are installing their landscaping for the season. May also sees many people preparing their swimming pools for the summer, Fitterer told News 2, so those add to the increased water usage.

The timing of those peaks couple with lighter rainfall in those months is where a lot of the pressure comes from, the mayor said. Later summer dryness then exacerbates the issue, he added.

Because the policy is just that, Fitterer said compliance is largely a voluntary effort, which creates challenges for city officials looking to enforce it.

"Enforcement doesn't work great, because it's a voluntary process," he said.

Finding the balance between managing city resources and not encroaching on individual liberties was a delicate balance the board seemed to want on Monday night, per Fitterer.

"I think the general direction of the meeting Monday evening was we prefer a lighter touch, but we did direct city staff to bring some options that we could consider at a later date," he told News 2.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/middle-tn-neighborhood-news/spring-hill-debates-giving-water-conservation-policy-more-enforcement-through-ordinance/