Water restrictions easing up in Orange Cove

ORANGE COVE, Calif. (KFSN) -- Water restrictions are now easing up for people who live in Orange Cove. For months no one in the city was allowed to water outdoors.

"It looks pretty dry. The grass is so dead," said Yobanais Morales. Morales told Action News having a brown lawn is a small price to pay during this extreme drought. "Most of the time I work in the fields and if there is no water, there are going to be less jobs and less work. It's going to be hard for us," added Morales.

The city relies on Friant Dam for water but in late January because of the drought, that supply was cut. So city leaders stopped all outdoor watering to make up for the shortage. Anyone caught breaking the rules was given a warning before facing a $100 citation.

"Fortunately none of our residents received citations. We did give about 70 warnings during that time period," said city manager Samuel Escobar.

Escobar said the tight restrictions helped save water. "In the months of February, March and April during those months our consumption was 1,000 gallons a minute and we got reduced to 600 gallons a minute," said Escobar.

The city is now allowing people to water on specific days for public safety. "Our goal is for the summertime is to allow residents to water twice a week just to keep the plants alive and the grass because our biggest concern was fire. That we would have more fires in or town and our fire department would be impacted because of it," said Escobar.

City leaders are now looking into the possibility of building a well in Orange Cove to help people who live in the area during future drought years.