The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last Tuesday to ban new permits for residential irrigation systems in an effort to be more proactive with water conservation.
This ban will apply to all manual and automatic irrigation systems that are proposed to be connected to The City of Raleigh water system (public potable water system). Remember, the City of Raleigh is where Wake Forest gets it's water. In addition to Wake Forest, the towns and municipalities of Rolesville, Wendell, Knightdale, Gardner and Zebulon also get their water from The City of Raleigh - those towns and municipalities are not a part of the ban. The ban is effective immediately. Those that receive their water from other sources such as wells are not effected. Should the City of Raleigh ever devise and implement a re-used water system the ban would not apply.
Developers are concerned that this will limit the homeowners that invest in their lawns. Actual homeowners have had a mixed reaction to the ban stating both that it is a good idea and others stating that there should be a cease in development which is initially creating the need for the irrigation systems in the first place.
Me? Having gone through this recent drought I can safely say that water conservation is a must! If there was a way to monitor water use and perhaps implement tighter restrictions year round it may alleviate the need for the ban.....
Always a little controversial in My Back Yard....
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Leesa in Ann Arbor they sold rain barrels and yes I bought one but haven't installed it as yet. You use the rain water to water your plants. I agree with you.
Is there a ban on using the existing in ground sprinklers too? Or is it just for new installs?
Karen - Rain barrels became hugely popular here with the horrible drought. I have one as well! Great for capturing the rainwater and watering the garden.
Don - It would appear that the ban only pertains to NEW systems. I think that is why I lean more toward stricter rules across the board.
The ban does not have as much to do with conservation as it does the costs to the Town of Wake Forest if they exceed their water allocation agreement amount. The water is here for irrigation so keep it on 2 days a week. Someone should expose the actual costs if the Town exceeds the agreed amount. This will show you it's more a question of money than conservation.
Dominic - Thanks for stopping by and providing your thoughts! The water is here for irrigation so keep it on 2 days a week. That comment confused me slightly....are you also in favor of tighter restrictions and forgetting the ban?
My "daddy" introduced me to the idea of a rain barrel years ago; and we used it for watering my plants (and I have a GREAT DEAL of them) thank goodness we have no issues here. I was also wondering if the ban included in ground sprinklers?
Patti - If by the sprinklers that you attach to the end of a hose is what you mean then - no, they are not banned. However, if it is the underground sprinklers then yes.
There's nothing I love more than a beautiful green lawn... unless of course it's a tall cool drink of water on a hot day. :) haha We can engineer heartier grass... it's hard to de-engineer thirst.
To be honest with you I think if we had water permits for irrigation there would be a better use of water conservation. As it is know--when I turn on my hose with a sprinkler--I will go inside and watch tv and forget it was on and sometimes I will leave it on in certain places for 20 minutes or a half hour--just by being lazy and not moving it every 5 minutes. Water conservation would be greater if we had irrigation--because we could just set it on a timer and be done with it--I go through way more water by forgetting to move the sprinkler every 5 minutes than I would with irrigation.