Under the new watering rules ordinance, which was approved last week by City Council, all San Antonio Water System customers are now under newly established Stage 3 watering rules. SAWS customers had been in Stage 2 watering rules for two years. San Antonio has been in drought restrictions for much of the last five years.
Under the new Stage 3 watering rules, irrigation system hours of use don’t shorten between Stage 2 and Stage 3 (5-10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight), but a high use surcharge will apply to residential customers using 20,000 gallons or more during a billing cycle after July 6, 2024. Records of past citywide water use indicate that the surcharge would only affect the top five percent of water users. Commercial customers are also subject to a surcharge based on their irrigation usage.
“These changes encourage customers with very high outdoor use to reconsider their watering patterns in Stage Three. In addition, going to a new administrative enforcement process with one-time charges on SAWS bills for violations rather than criminal citations creates a more efficient and fair process for all SAWS customers, regardless of where they live in the metro area,” said Karen Guz, SAWS Vice President of Conservation. “It’s also important to know that this new system allows customers to continue to water once a week in Stage 3, pushing off the more severe twice-a-month watering rules to an emergency only Stage 4.”
Watering days are still determined by the last digit of the address. Watering with a hand-held hose is still allowed any time on any day.
- 0 or 1 – Monday
- 2 or 3 – Tuesday
- 4 or 5 – Wednesday
- 6 or 7 – Thursday
- 8 or 9 – Friday
SAWS has significantly diversified San Antonio’s water supplies and now the Edwards Aquifer represents only about half of the city’s available drinking water because it is just one of the utilities’ nine water sources.