Town of Plains asks residents to limit water usage

The Town of Plains is instituting a voluntary water restriction program in response to the lack of rain, the extensive heat, and the capability of the town’s water pumps to keep up with the community needs, particularly if a fire were to occur in town.

The Declaration of Voluntary Water Use Restrictions was signed by Plains Mayor Dan Rowan on Monday. “Whereas, the citizens of the Town of Plains have experienced a pattern of severe weather, which has burdened the town in serving the potable water needs of the users ... it has been determined by the mayor as the chief executive officer to call for voluntary water use restriction for all users of the system,” according to the document.

Rowan, along with Shari Johnson, the town’s contracted engineer, and members of the Plains Public Works Department, discussed the problem and options Monday morning. “We’re at a critical needs situation to conserve water, but we wanted to first make it voluntary and monitor it for awhile to see if people will voluntarily do it before we make anything mandatory,” said Rowan. If community members won’t help conserve the water on a voluntary basis, Rowan said they might have to hold a special emergency town council meeting to make it mandatory. At that point, residents that won’t restrict their water use could be fined, said Rowan. Fines could be as high as $500.

Rowan said the restrictions apply only to irrigation, such as the watering of lawns, and don’t apply to drinking or bathing. It also doesn’t address the washing of vehicles, but he said he hopes people would use common sense. “If we could all just use a little less, then there would still be enough for everyone,” said Rowan. He noted that water restrictions are very rare and recalls it taking place only once in the last 18 years. He said the restrictions are for the good of the town overall.

Restrictions call for addresses with odd numbers to irrigate lawns on odd numbered days, and those with even numbers to irrigate on even days. In addition, the guidelines call for watering to be done 5-11 a.m. or 5-11 p.m. and only once a day.

“The capacity drawdown of the water tank and the overtaxing of the pumps has reached a critical point in the provision of fire protection and sufficient volume of potable water,” Rowan said in the declaration. The volunteer restrictions were instituted in an effort to prevent public emergency or disaster, he added. “The danger is that we could lose our largest well source and that would jeopardize everybody’s water immediately,” said Johnson.

Rowan believes the well pumps are already overtaxed and wants to do something before one or both break down, which is what happened recently in Thompson Falls. “The pumps are designed to run continuously, but anytime you run something all the time, it’s more likely to break down,” said Rowan, who added that the town is also restricting its parks watering to two hours at a time every other day.