The public water system of the City of Mason has reached a Critical, Level 2 condition recently, and the City Administrator John Palacio has implemented additional water conservation measures. While we do not fear immediate water shortages, we feel it is necessary to move beyond voluntary measures to protect the water levels for everyone. As the hot summer winds continue to blow and the dry conditions only worsen, the City of Mason will now begin enforcing mandatory water conservation measures throughout the community. Rather than immediately banning the use of water for outdoor sprinkling, we will limit each water customer to watering only twice a week and only between the hours of 7:00 pm and 10:00 am, or hand watering at other times. We ask for everyone to water their lawns on their days and continue our water conservations plans:
- All even numbered houses can water twice a week either on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday between the hours of 7:00 pm and 10:00 am.
- All odd numbered houses can water twice a week either on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday between the hours of 7:00 pm and 10:00 am.
- You will be allowed to hand water if you so need to.
We will be monitoring outdoor watering from private wells within the City as well as from the public water system since all of the water comes from the Hickory Aquifer and the negative impacts from depleting that water source will affect everyone in this community.
We hope that everyone will cooperate and limit all non-essential water use. We will begin immediately monitoring water usage and will issue warnings and turn off unnecessary water usage as well as water sprinklers running during the heat of the day. Beginning July 19th , we will shift from monitoring and warnings to issuing citations and fines for watering other than between 7:00 pm and 10:00 am and for other non-essential water use or waste. If there is no significant rain in the next couple of months we may have to move to a Level 3 Water Rationing Stage, but we believe that with your help and cooperation we may not need to move to that restrictive stage. Your grass and plantings may suffer a little, but we are most concerned to protect the water supply for the critical daily needs of our residents, not just the wants of a few. As we try to protect the health and safety of our town, we hope that you will help and that we will soon be blessed with rain that might limit this current drought.