Fresno puts further limits on lawn watering

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- New watering restrictions are being imposed on Fresno residents. Starting August first the city placed further limits on lawn watering.

Currently Fresno residents are allowed outside watering three days a week. Now that's being cut to just two in the summer and no days at all come winter.

Many homeowners like Gordon Wiens are already trying to deal with the drought. He's only watering the lawn on his Central Fresno home two days a week.

Wiens said, "That's what we are trying to do and for the most part we can do that quite well, now and then we have to spot water because there are certain spots that need just a little bit more but with a hose, but yeah we've cut back to twice a week."

He admits his lawn is not as green as it was and he's taking extra steps to try and save his trees. But some lawns in the neighborhood are completely gone. Fresno City Manager Bruce Rudd held a news conference to say making everyone water just two days a week is needed to preserve the underground aquifer, which provides most of Fresno's water.

"Our underground aquifer continues to decline, we do not foresee any change in that,

In the immediate future."

The aquifer is refilled to a large degree by snowmelt and rainfall. The shortage of both for the third year in a row has farms and cities pumping deeper. To save some of the supply the new restrictions limit outside watering to just two days a week. Odd numbered addresses can only water on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Even numbers on Wednesday and Sundays. Watering on those days can only occur between 7 at night and 6 in the morning. Rudd thinks most lawns will survive.

Rudd said, "We believe that one day is not going to cause grass, the wholesale browning of grass."

Gordon Wiens thinks he can keep his lawn alive, for a while anyway.

"It depends on if the drought continues for a fourth or fifth year," said Wiens. "If it does it's a whole different ball game for everyone who has a green yard."