With the summer season approaching, the topic of water usage has once again been thrust into the spotlight.
Ordinance 2016-07A was introduced at the April 17th Town Council meeting to lessen the restrictions on water usage brought about by Ordinance 2016-07.
On October 3rd of last year, Ordinance 2016-07 was adopted by the Londonderry Town Council in response to extreme drought conditions that plagued the region in 2016. In an effort to conserve water, the council imposed a mandatory ban on the watering of residential lawns in the town. First offenders who violated this ordinance would receive a written or verbal warning, second offenders would be fined $250 and each successive violation would carry a $500 fine. Non-residential property owners were also encouraged to abide by the ban, but they would not face punishment if they chose not to.
However, in the time since then, these drought conditions have notably improved, with the US Drought Monitor Center recently re-classifying the town of Londonderry from suffering “extreme” drought conditions to only suffering “severe” conditions as of March 30th of this year.
As a result, the amendment hopes to ease back some of these restrictions. As brought up by Assistant Town Manager Lisa Drabik, the new rules would allow households with addresses ending in an odd number being permitted to water their lawns on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, while those addresses ending in an even number would be permitted to water lawns on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. However, the punishments for violating the ordinance would remain the same in this updated ordinance.
The amendment request also mentioned that not only can municipalities already establish restrictions through their governing bodies on the use of water from private wells or public water systems during drought conditions, but public water supply companies already place some restrictions on portions of Londonderry.
Council member Joe Green seemed apprehensive about the amendment for a couple of reasons.
For starters, he felt opposed to moving forward on the idea while the town still technically suffers from a drought by the standards of the US Drought Monitor Center.
Furthermore, he wanted to make sure such an ordinance was “not impossible to enforce”, noting the added complication with keeping track of watering lawns on specific days instead of in general. Mr. Green mentioned that “Some people will be law-abiding; some will try to get around the system.”
Concerns were also raised by resident Diana Mele. Mrs. Mele seemed opposed to the amendment, quoted saying that “we have to take very much in concern with our water.” However, she also suggested other ideas for the amendment, such as minimizing the utilization of sprinkler systems, as well as considering the time of day watering may occur, preferably before peak daylight hours.
Mrs. Mele also voiced her frustrations with the council over their undertakings with drought measures, noting that they should act on their own accord in the face of emergencies, not when the governor makes note of such a situation.
However, a vote on the topic was never undertaken. Council Vice-Chairman John Farrell requested a delay on the vote for numerous reasons. Not only did he wish to give the council members more time to mull over the issue and its ramifications, but he also noted the inbound storms in the coming days may have an effect on the drought situation and would like to see if Londonderry’s situation improves.
As a result, the council approved a delay on a vote for the amendment. A reconsideration of amending Ordinance 2016-07A will be taken up on May 15th.