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The San Antonio Water System plans to temporarily cut service to business customers who are chronic offenders of the water restrictions.
SAWS said they are "only considering this for business customers with a separate irrigation meter who have received multiple citations but have not corrected their landscaping water use."
Residential or business indoor water meters will not be turned off.
Karen Guz is the vice president of water conservation for SAWS. In an interview with TPR's "The Source," she said the municipally owned utility was prepared to take additional action against business customers who aren’t cutting back on their water usage.
“There are a couple properties out there that we’ve given them a citation, we’ve communicated with them, and we’re not seeing a change. We’re preparing to let them know that another tool we have in ordinance is discontinuing service,” she said.
Guz said that business customers would be able to continue their service by signing a document that says they will make a corrective action. If there is another violation, water will be turned off for at least two weeks.
“This is for landscape, irrigation properties where we have already tried the citation and communication, and haven’t gotten a result. I’m happy to say this is not a huge number of properties,” she explained.
This is the first time that SAWS will cut service for repeat offenders.
“With the heat we are seeing, it seems to be a new problem. A few are resistant to following the rules,” Guz explained.
SAWS customers are currently in Stage 2 restrictions. Hand-held watering is allowed any time of day.
Landscape watering is allowed once a week from 7:00-11:00 a.m and 7:00-11:00 p.m. on designated watering days.
“This is a severe drought. We’ve got most people doing what we’re asking them to do," she said. "We need to get those few that are not on board to fix the problem.”
