As drought continues to parch Georiga and wildfires rage through over 10,000 acres of forest in Southern Georgia, the state's environmental director has announced that the times homeowners can water their lawns has been reduced.

Dr. Carol Couch, Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director, announced during an emergency meeting of the state's Drought Response Committee, Wednesday, April 18, that lawns can only be watered between 10 a.m.-12 midnight, extending the no-water time by eight hours.

The Drought Response Committee declared a Level 1 drought in June, 2006. According to the Georgia Conservancy website, the following water restrictions apply statewide under a Level 1 drought:

• No watering is permitted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Odd numbered addresses may water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
• Even numbered addresses can water on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
• No watering is allowed on Friday.
• Some individual counties and cities have implemented stricter guidelines so please be sure to check with your local officials.

Dr. Couch stated that she would take action to remove the drought declaration only when favorable conditions exist for at least four consecutive months.

Conservation pricing

Conservation pricing is an important tool in for water conservation. Considering the current drought declaration, it is more important than ever to support water conservation measures like conservation pricing, because without these, Georgia will not be able to meet its future water supply needs. Conservation pricing is a rate structure that encourages consumers to reduce water use by charging more for increased water use. Increased water rates have proven to be a strong incentive for water users to reduce excessive outdoor water use.

Under a conservation pricing rate structure system, the customer is charged more per unit of demand. For example, customers might be charged $2.00 per 1000 gallons for the first 10,000 gallons of water used, $4.00 for the next 10,000 gallons, and so on. While most of the counties and larger cities in Atlanta use this pricing structure, there are many utilities in Georgia that have declining or decreasing block rate structures that actually discourage conservation by charging lower rates per incremental volume of water used. A uniform rate can be used as an interim step for utilities that are working toward conservation pricing (the same charge for all customers at all levels of consumption).

After leak detection, conservation pricing has been estimated to provide the greatest water savings potential in the 16-county Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (the District). Within the District, an estimated 20.1 million gallons per day (mgd) can be saved through conservation pricing alone.

Conservation pricing is a critical conservation measure that will help to ensure enough clean water is available for all Georgians. If we don’t carefully manage and protect our water, we risk losing this resource, and with it, the Georgia way of life we treasure.